ORDER
Jyoti Balasundaram, Vice-President
1. The above appeals arise out of the order of Commissioner of Central Excise, Bangalore who has ordered redetermination of assessable value in respect of motor cars manufactured by the appellant-company during the period April, 1994 to December, 1995 by disallowing deductions towards trade discount not passed on to their customers and by loading additional consideration received by them and interest accrued on advances received from their customers, and on the above basis he has confirmed a duty demand of Rs. 8,43,600/- BED and Rs. 3,732/- Cess on trade discount not passed on, and Rs. 4,17,581/- BED and Rs. 1825/- Cess on additional consideration during the period March to December, 1995, duty of Rs. 46,20,488/- BED and Rs. 20,215/- Cess on interest accrued on advances collected during the entire period in dispute. Duty of Rs. 28,536/- BED and Rs. 124 Cess have been appropriated and adjusted against the demand of above-mentioned amount. The Commissioner has also imposed penalties of Rs. 15 lakhs and Rs. 2.5 lakhs on the company and its Joint Managing Director, respectively.
2. We have heard Shri Krishna Kant, learned Advocate and Mrs. Krishna Mishra, learned SDR.
3. We agree with the appellants that the demands raised in the show cause notice dated 6-8-1996 are barred by limitation. The department was well aware of the practice being followed by the appellants and also issued show cause notice for the earlier period i.e. 1-3-1989 to 30-9-1992, which demand was restricted by the adjudicating authority to the normal period of limitation holding that the extended period was not applicable. The appellants had been regularly submitting all statutory returns and therefore, the charge of suppression of facts or wilful mis-statement to evade payment of duty in order to invoke the larger period of limitation cannot be levelled against them. In this view of the matter, we set aside the demands as time barred as also penalties and allow the appeals.
Operative part of the order already pronounced in the open Court on 11-1-2005.
