- (1.) These are appeals under Section 35L (b) of the Central Excise Act, 1944 against the order dated 15.03.2005 of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal, West Zonal Bench, Mumbai, (for short "the Tribunal").
(2.) The facts very briefly are that the appellant produces inter alia Reduced Crude Oil (for short "RCO"). By Notification No. 75/84-CE dated 01.03.1984, the Central government in exercise of its powers under Sub-Rule 1 of Rule 8 of the Central Excise Rules, 1944 (for short "the Rules") exempted goods described in Column 3 of the table annexed to the notification from so much of the duty of excise as is specified in the notification subject to the intended use, or the conditions, if any, laid down in Column 5 of the table annexed to the notification. One of the goods exempted from excise duty by the notification was RCO, if produced only from indigenous crude oil subject to intended use as fuel for generation of electrical energy by electricity undertakings owned or controlled by the Central Government or any State Government or any State Electricity Board or any local authority or any licensee under Part-II of the Indian Electricity Act, 1910 except those who produce electrical energy not for sale but for their own consumption or for supply to their own undertakings. The proviso in the notification stated two conditions subject to which the exemption was granted and one of the conditions was that where the intended use is elsewhere than in the factory of production, the procedure set out in Chapter X of the Rules is followed. Rule 192 in Chapter X of the Rules provided inter alia that where the Central Government has by notification under Rule 8 sanctioned the remission of duty on excisable goods other than salt used in a specified industrial process and it is necessary for this purpose to obtain an excise registration certificate, he should submit the requisite application along with the proof of payment of the registration fee and shall then be granted a registration certificate in the proper form. Rule 192 further provided that the concession shall, unless renewed by the Collector, cease on the expiry of the registration certificate.
(3.) The Ahmedabad Electricity Company Ltd. had obtained a registration certificate in Form CT-2 under Rule 192 of Chapter X of the Rules and on the strength of such registration certificate, purchased RCO from the appellant availing the exemption from excise duty under Notification No. 75/84 dated 01.03.1984 (for short 'the exemption notification'). The registration certificate obtained by the Ahmedabad Electricity Company Ltd. expired on 31.12.1995 and a fresh registration was granted in its favour on 26.06.1996. After issuing two show-cause notices, the Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise passed two orders demanding excise duty of Rs. 32,35,485/- from the appellant for RCO supplied to the Ahmedabad Electricity Company Ltd. during the period 01.01.1996 to 25.06.1996 on the ground that the said company did not have a registration certificate in Form CT-2 under Rule 192 of Chapter X of the Rules during this period and, therefore, the RCO supplied by the appellant to the Ahmedabad Electricity Company Ltd. during this period was not exempt from excise duty. The appellant paid the excise duty and subsequently applied for refund contending that the registration certificate in Form CT-2 had been obtained by the Ahmedabad Electricity Company Ltd. on 26.06.1996. The refund claims were rejected by the Assistant Commissioner. Thereafter, the appellant filed appeals before the Commissioner of Central Excise (Appeals) who confirmed the demands of excise duty for the period from 01.01.1996 to 25.06.1996. The appellant then filed three appeals before the Tribunal against the orders of Commissioner of Central Excise (Appeals) confirming demand and the order rejecting the refund claim. By the impugned order, the Tribunal dismissed the appeals saying that as the statutory requirement of conditional exemption notification had not been complied with by the appellant it was not entitled to the exemption benefit.;