Big Win for revenue in Mumbai CESTAT - Gets pre-deposit of 156 crores!
THE Jt CDR's Office in Mumbai CESTAT is celebrating a great victory - they got a pre-deposit order of Rs. 156 Crores from manufacturers of MS Ingots. What clinched the issue in favour of the Revenue was the excessive consumption of electricity. The Tribunal observed, “when the department discharged their initial burden of proof by showing excess consumption of electricity (a major input) by the appellants, the latter did not have any valid explanation to offer. Hence the Revenue cannot be faulted for demanding duty on the steel ingots which could have been manufactured by consuming the excess quantity of electricity. ” So the Tribunal ordered pre-deposit of 50% of the duty demanded and 25% of the penalty imposed.
Incidentally two of the parties in this case are SRJ Peety Steels and Om Sairam Steel . Does that ring a bell?
Remember in January 2011, the CBI arrested a Central Excise officer in Pune allegedly receiving a bribe of Rs. 1.09 Crores from one Surendra Peety of SRJ Peety Steels and Dinnesh Bharuka of Om Sairam Steel?
We have already carried this order in