Visen Industries Limited Vs Commissioner of Central Excise (Bombay High Court)
Bombay High Court held that modus operandi of wrong availment of cenvat credit and passing on the same to consumer are question of facts and the same is examined by two authorities. Thus, writ dismissed as such finding of facts doesn’t give raise to any question of law.
Facts- The Appellant is engaged in the manufacture of polymer emulsions, which are used in paint, textiles and adhesive industries. For the product’s manufacture, the primary raw material, i.e., Vinyl Acetate Monomer, is imported by the Appellant and stored in Customs Bonded. The Appellant cleared the said Vinyl Acetate Monomer to their customers directly from the said Custom Bonded Warehouse but maintained the records in such a manner that the said raw material was received in the factory and subsequently cleared from the factory without bringing the said goods into the factory. This was done to take Cenvat Credit of the admissible duties and issue a central excise invoice to clear the same to their customers by debiting the Cenvat Credit account and passing on the credit to their customers. This modus operandi was unearthed by the Respondent-Revenue.
After a detailed investigation, a show cause notice was issued by invoking a larger period of limitation since. Show cause notice came to be adjudicated by the Commissioner of Central Excise, Thane, who passed an order disallowing the Cenvat Credit of Rs. 5,63,66,047/- wrongly availed and utilised by the Appellant during the period August 2009 to September 2012 and ordered the recovery of the said amount. By this order, a penalty of Rs.6,82,11,154/- was also imposed on the Appellant under Rule 15(2) of the Cenvat Credit Rules, 2004, r.w.s. 11AC of the Central Excise Act, 1944. Being aggrieved, the present appeal is filed.
