No Excise Duty Leviable on Steel Structures which are Part of Permanent Civil Construction and not Designed as Goods: CESTAT [Read Order]

The Chennai bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) held that steel structures that are part of permanent civil construction and are not designed as goods are not leviable to central excise duty. 

Sri Saraswathi Propeller Works, the appellant assessee was engaged in the manufacture and fabrication of spares/parts for heavy equipment and also undertook repair and reconditioning of the spares/parts for heavy equipment. 

The assessee appealed against the order passed by the original authority confirmed the demand along with interest and imposed an equal penalty besides imposing penalty under Rule 25 of Central Excise Rules, 2002. 

S. Venkatachalam, the counsel for the assessee contended that the department had not given any sufficient opportunity to the assessee for defending his case and the relevant documents were not produced by the assessee for supporting the case. 

Also submitted that there was much delay in issuing the show cause notice after the visit and seizure of the documents and it was stressed by the counsel that the assessee was handicapped due to the non-availability of the documents and had not been able to put forward proper defense in the case and the assessee may be given one more opportunity to defend the case. 

Ananda Lakshmi Ganeshram, the counsel for the department relied on the decisions made by the lower authorities and contended that there was clear admission on the part of the assessee, and therefore the order passed by the Commissioner was legal and proper. 

The Bench observed that an item embedded on earth cannot be called an ‘excisable good’ and accordingly no duty was required to be paid on the same. 

The two-member bench comprising Sulekha Beevi (Judicial) and Vasa Seshagiri Rao (Technical) remanded the matter to the adjudicating authority who was directed to furnish the relied upon document to the assessee and also give an opportunity of hearing to the assessee with sufficient chance for adducing any further evidence. 

Support our journalism by subscribing to Taxscan premium. Follow us on Telegram for quick updates