The New Delhi bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) held that the availment of CENVAT credit based on Railway Receipts (RR) authenticated certificates photocopy issued by railways are valid documents under rule 9 of the CENVAT credit rules,2004.
Diamond Cement, the appellant assessee was engaged in the manufacture of cement, and availed the services of the West Central Railway division of Indian Railways, for transportation of their finished goods from the plant to their depots/Godowns/ Warehouses.
The assessee appealed against the order passed by the Commissioner (Appeals) for upheld the denial of the CENVAT credit of service tax paid on rail freight.
B.L. Narasimhan and Shashwat Arya, the counsels for the assessee contended that the Commissioner (Appeals) had failed to appreciate that the assessable value/the freight paid was invariably mentioned in all the RRs submitted by the assessee for the respective months and the department had not disputed the receipt of the taxable services from the Railways and the tax paid nature of such services.
It was further submitted that the CENVAT credit availed on the strength of RR photocopy authenticated by certificates issued by Railways are valid documents in terms of rule 9 of the Credit Rules.
Rakesh Agarwal, the counsel for the department relied on the decisions made by the lower authorities and contended that the certificate issued to the assessee lacked vital information such as the name of the consignee, name of the originating station, name, and address of the factory or warehouse, description of the taxable service, assessable value, etc.
The bench observed that the documents contain all the requisite details/information in compliance with the proviso of Rule 9(2) of the Credit Rules.
The two-member bench comprising Dilip Gupta (President) and Hemambika R. Priya (Technical) allowed the assessee to avail of the CENVAT credit which had been held inadmissible in the impugned order while allowing the appeal filed by the assessee.
Subscribe Taxscan Premium to view the JudgmentSupport our journalism by subscribing to Taxscan premium. Follow us on Telegram for quick updates
