- (1.) Instant Central Excise Appeals u/Sec. 35 -G of the Central Excise Act, 1944 have been preferred against order of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal, New Delhi impugned Dt. 15/07/2015 & 6/07/2015. It related to the period from April, 2009 to September, 2009; February, 2006 to January, 2008; February, 2008 to March, 2008; July 2008 to March, 2009 and April, 2008 to June, 2008 respectively.
(2.) Brief facts noticed are that the respondent -assessee is engaged in the manufacturing of Ball Bearing & Axle Box falling under Chapter 84 & 86 of the First Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 and registered with the Central Excise Department. The assessee is having three units at Jaipur, Manesar and Niwai and its Central Head Office is at Jaipur. The assessee availed Cenvat Credit on certain services like Selling Commission, Royalty, Consultancy & Professional, Banking Charges, Audit Fee, AMC Charges etc. on which service tax was paid and invoices were raised in the name of the Head Office. The Jaipur unit of the assessee has taken Cenvat Credit on all these services.
(3.) A show cause notice was issued by the Commissioner, inter -alia, pointing out as to why the Cenvat Credit wrongly availed by the assessee should not be recovered with interest and penalty. It was observed in the show cause notice that the assessee wrongfully availed credit of Service Tax paid on services rendered by the service providers for whole group of M/s. National Engineering Industries Ltd. instead of solely in respect of unit situated at Khatipura Road, Jaipur. The assessee objected to the said show cause notice and contended that the units may be situated at different places but are under the common management and the Cenvat Credit has rightly been claimed. The assessee also submitted the details of credit of service tax availed on input tax services availed of by it from time to time. The assessee reiterated that it is having three units (i) at Jaipur, (ii) Niwai and (iii) Manesar and that all the three units are owned by the company working in the name of style of M/s. National Engineering Ltd. which is a company duly registered under the Companies Act and all the three units of the Company are engaged in the production of Homogenous product namely Bearings falling under Chapter 84 of First Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985. The unit situated at Khatipura Road, Jaipur is a composite unit of two entities i.e. (i) manufacturer of excisable goods and provider of output services and (ii) Head Office of the Company namely; M/s. National Engineering Industries Ltd. and further in the capacity of unit located at head Office the assessee placed order for purchase of inputs services that may be utilized commonly by all the three units for business of manufacture of the homogeneous final product i.e. Bearing falling under Chapter 84 of First Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 and Service Tax paid on those input services availed as Cenvat Credit was certainly to be utilized for payment of duty leviable on goods manufactured at unit located at head Office and payment of service tax on the output services provided by the Company. Since all the orders for purchase of input services are placed by the Head office i.e. the unit of the Company situated at Khatipura Road, Jaipur, where credit in respect of Service Tax paid on the services for which the Bills/Invoices are received is taken/availed. It was also contended that the unit situated at Khatipura Jaipur, which also works in the capacity of the Head Office of the Company, may be a big unit while the other units of the company situated at Niwai and Manesar are very small units. It was also contended that the break up of the turnover of the three units in respect of the production/sale of final products in the relevant period was also provided namely; Jaipur unit 85.86%, Newai unit 13.83% and Manesar unit 00.31%. It was also submitted that admittedly the consolidated balance sheet, profit & loss account, trading account etc is being prepared from year to year.;