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TMI Blog2017 (12) TMI 604X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... is nothing to show that the appellant had ever informed the Department or had tried to take the view of the Department on their product. Further, it is well settled that ignorance of law in no excuse - the party has suppressed the fact of manufacturing of blinds from the Department and extended period of limitation under section 11A (1) is invokable in this case. Appeal dismissed - decided against appellant. - E/2395-2396/2012-EX(DB) - A/57421-57422/2017-EX[DB] - Dated:- 27-10-2017 - Dr. Satish Chandra, President And Mr. V. Padmanabhan, Member (Technical) Present Shri Amit Jain, Advocate for the appellant Present Shri R.K. Mishra, DR for the respondent ORDER Per: V. Padmanabhan 1. The appeal is against Order in Original No.01/2012 dated 04/05/2012 2. The facts giving rise to this appeal are, in brief, as under,:- 2.1. The appellant are in the business of installing roller blinds, curtain tracks, etc. at site. For this purpose, items like fabrics, aluminum tubes, aluminum tracks, plastic brackets, metal brackets, chain, etc. are procured from outside. The roller blinds are of textile fabrics as well as non-textile items (plastic). Since ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tical blinds made out of the fabrics of Chapter 52 to 59 are classifiable under sub-heading 630300 and the roller blinds of fabrics falling under Chapter 70 are classifiable under sub-heading no.70199000 of the Tariff. The Commissioner by this order confirmed the duty demand of ₹ 44,66,863/- along with interest. Besides this, also imposed penalty of equal amount on the appellant company under Section 11 AC, the imposed penalty of ₹ 5 Lakh on Shri Arun Jasuja, General Manager of the appellant company. An amount of ₹ 15 Lakhs already deposited by the appellant during investigation was ordered to be appropriated towards this demand. Against this order of the Commissioner, these two appeals have been filed. 3. Heard both the sides. 4. Shri Amit Jain, Ld. Counsel for the appellant for the appellant, pleaded that for installation of the roller/vertical blind, first measurements are taken at site or drawings are obtained from Architect; that as per the drawing/measurements and the type of blinds to be installed, the materials for the same-blinds, aluminum tubes, fabrics brackets, motors, if required, metal curtain tracks, etc., are sourced; that the aluminum tubes ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nt has already admitted that the goods manufactured by the appellant do not become immovable property. He also further submitted that the legal opinion obtained by the appellant clearly indicated that items manufactured are items clearly liable to payment of Excise duty. Accordingly, he prayed for no holding the impugned order. 6. The appellant had submitted a note on the process of manufacture undertaken. According to this the steps undertaken are summarized below. a. Technical staff visits the customer s site; measure the width, height, etc. and assesses the fitness of the site for installation of blinds. Drawing of the site is made and sent to the workshop. b. If the site is ready, then brackets are sent for installation, which are aligned and fitted on site onto the wooden/marble window sill/ceiling within the pelmet. c. Exact measurement of site, after fitting the brackets, is once again taken and sent to workshop. d. Upon receipt of measurement, following activities are undertaken: e. Fabric is cut to size in required width and height, and aluminum tube and bottom bars are cut to the required width. f. Fabric is fixed on the aluminum tube ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... moved at any time which renders these blinds to be in the nature of movable rather that immovable property. These facts also have been admitted by Shri Zakkaria Vergere Salaria, MD of the company in his affidavit. Hence we find no justification in the claim of the appellant that the goods become immovable property. Further we also do not find any merit in the claim of the appellant that these goods are tailor made items and not marketable. It is obvious that the product is available as per the needs of the buyer even though it may not be a product offered on the shelves. Further, we find that blinds (including venetian blinds and similar articles) find specific inclusion in CETH 39253000 of Central Excise Tariffs, when made out of plastics. Accordingly these goods are chargeable to excisable duty under CETH 39253000 when made of out of plastic and under CETH 630300 and 70199000 when made out of other materials. 10. The other argument of the appellant is that they were registered for rendering services and have also paid service tax. It is obvious that service tax if paid can only be on service component. The value of the service component is not includible in the value of goods ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Department though the value of clearance has crossed the limit of ₹ 500 Lakhs. The manufacturer never disclosed to the Department that they were manufacturing Roller Blinds. There was no confusion about the duty liability on the said products. Further Sh. Arun R Jasuja, General Manager of the said Company on spot on 18.12.2008 has inter alia stated that they were in process of taking of registration in another fortnight; that the Company was principally in agreement that some of the products manufactured by them were excisable like roller blinds/window dressing. From the above it is evident that the party was aware of the fact of duty liability on the Roller Blinds but has not taken the Central Excise Registration and had not shown that it made any effort to discover, by making enquiries with the department whether it was liable to duty. I found that M/s Walltracks (India) Pvt. Ltd. is a part of Walltracks LLC (middle East). It is normal procedure when a company starts there business in a new country that company always studied the law of that country. This might have been done by M/s Walltracks also. They were aware of the facts that their competitors in the market are payi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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