ORDER
Jyoti Balasundaram, Member (J)
1. The above application for waiver of pre-deposit of duty of Rs. 54,80/451.87 and penalty of equal amount under the provisions of Section 11AC of the Central Excise Act, arises out of the order of the Commissioner of Central Excise who has confirmed the above demand on thrust bearing assemblies manufactured by the applicants herein who are manufacturers of power driven pumps, both for handling of water and other than for handling water, by holding them to be bearings falling under Chapter Heading 84.82 of the Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985. The period of dispute is 1996-97 to 2001-2002 (up to July, 2001).
2. According to the applicants’ item in dispute has no independent existence and is an integral part of the pump and is therefore neither an intermediate product nor the marketable final product attracting Central Excise Duty. The next contention of the applicants is that the items in question are not bearings and are hence entitled to exemption in terms of serial No. 253 of Notification No. 6/2000-CE., dt. 1-3-2000 which covers all goods except (a) Electrical stamp and laminations (b) bearings (c) winding wires used in the manufacture of power driven pumps designed primarily for handling water. The applicants also raised plea of limitation (Show cause notice is dt. 27-9-2001, on the ground that they had described the components of thrust bearing assembly individually in their classification/declaration. Lastly, they plead financial hardship based upon their Balance Sheet for the half-year ending 30th September, 2002 which shows a Net. Loss.
3. The prayer is opposed by the ld. DR who reiterated the findings of the adjudicating authority on the classification of the product. Regarding time bar he contends that the applicant suppressed the fact of manufacture of thrust bearing assembly and hence the proviso to Section 11A(1) of the Central Excise Act, 1944 has been rightly invoked. He has no comment to offer on the balance sheet.
4. We have carefully considered the rival submissions. There is prima facie substance in the plea that the items in dispute are eligible to the benefit of exemption under Notification No. 6/2000 as we find that it is an admitted position that the thrust bearing assembly consists of housing bearing thrust block, bearing covers and lock nuts of which some are manufactured as cast article, and the rest of the elements used in the assembly as per drawings are procured from their vendors (see Para 33 of the impugned order). Therefore, prima facie the items are not bearings excluded from the benefit of the notification. We therefore hold that a prima facie case for waiver has been made by the applicants on this point, and dispense with the pre-deposit of duty and penalty and stay recovery thereof pending the appeal.
