Cost Accountant Certificate cannot be Dis-regarded Unless it proved to be Wrong or Contrary to Facts and Evidence: CESTAT Allows Excise Duty Refund Claim [Read Order]

The Chandigarh bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) held that Cost Accountant Certificate cannot be disregarded unless it was proved to be blatantly wrong and contrary to the facts and evidence available on the hand. 

Gillette India Ltd, the appellant assessee engaged in the manufacture and clearance of twin-type shaving system razors, twin-type shaving system cartridges, a razor for double-edge blades, and razor blades (double edge), and the assessee was supplying goods from his factory to the various depots availing exemption under Notification No. 50/2003-Central Excise. 

The assessee appealed against the order passed by the Commissioner of Central Excise for the rejection of the refund claim filed by the assessee. 

Sanjeev Nair, the counsel for the assessee contended that the order had not given any specific findings regarding the correctness and genuineness of the Cost Accountant Certificate and Cost Accountant Certificate was one of the sufficient conditions to substantiate that the incidence of duty had not been passed on to the customers and the onus to disprove the Cost Accountant Certificate was with the Department and the same had not been discharged. 

Rajiv Gupta, the counsel for the department relied on the decisions made by the lower authorities and contended that the exemption contained shall not apply to such goods that have been subjected to only one or more of the processes viz., preservation during storage, cleaning operations, packing or re-packing of such goods in a unit container or labeling/re-labeling of the container, sorting, declaration or alteration and had not been subjected to any other process or processes and according to the amendment. 

The Bench observed that in the case of Supreme Industries Ltd, the court held that a certificate given by a professional cannot be disregarded unless it is proved to be blatantly wrong and contrary to the facts and evidence available on the hand. Thus, the certificate given by the Cost Accountant has an evidentiary value and cannot be rejected in a half-handed manner. 

The two-member bench comprising S S Garg (Judicial) and Anjani Kumar (Technical) allowed the refund claim filed by the assessee while allowing the appeal filed by the assessee. 

To Read the full text of the Order CLICK HERE

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