Page 198 - ELT_1_1st April 2020_Vol 372_Part
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84                          EXCISE LAW TIMES                    [ Vol. 372

                                            quires for its support, addition or substitution of words or which results in
                                            rejection of words as meaningless has to be avoided.”
                                            3.4  It is  also submitted  that the case law  and the judgements  on the
                                     subject, cited by the appellant pertaining to interpretation of provisions of CCR,
                                     2004 and refund of unutilised credit was wrongly rejected. He relied on the deci-
                                     sions of judgement of CCE, Chennai-I v. Spic Ltd. - 2014 (305) E.L.T. 484 (Mad.),
                                     wherein the High Court of Madras has held as under :
                                            “18.  It was pointed out by the Revenue therein that in the original Scheme
                                            introduced, the application of the Scheme gave rise to a situation where the
                                            nexus between input and output was lost, leading to an anamolous situa-
                                            tion that though on the original item manufactured, a duty was liable to be
                                            paid, the ultimate product remained a duty-free product. Thus, this, accord-
                                            ing to the Revenue led to a  situation,  that  where, on the item originally
                                            manufactured, used as an input, duty was paid only in order to avoid pay-
                                            ment of duty  on the ultimate goods manufactured by them. The Apex
                                            Court considered this issue and held that on the payment of duty on the in-
                                            put and thereby utilising the facility for carrying out the credit towards Ex-
                                            cise duty payable on the final products, right to the credit had become abso-
                                            lute when the input was used in the manufacture of final product. By the
                                            application of Rule 57F(4A) of the Central Excise Rules, 1944, the credit at-
                                            tributable to the inputs already used in the manufacture of the final prod-
                                            ucts and which have been cleared from the factory is sought to be lapsed.
                                            The Supreme Court observed that when the assessee was entitled to take
                                            the credit of the input immediately on the input received in the factory on
                                            the basis of the existing Scheme, “incidence following thereto must take
                                            place in accordance with the scheme under which the duty had been paid
                                            on the manufactured products.”  In that context, the Supreme Court held
                                            that “provision for facility of credit is as good as tax paid till tax is adjusted
                                            on future goods on the basis of the several commitments which would have
                                            been made by the assessees concerned.”
                                            19.  Reading the above to the case on hand in the background of DEPB
                                            Scheme and the purpose of Modvat Scheme, we hold that availing of credit
                                            is as good as tax payment for the purpose of Rule 57Q of the Central Excise
                                            Rules.”
                                            3.5  In view of above judgment, it was impressed upon that the credit
                                     availed on the input material is as good as the duty paid in cash. Therefore, the
                                     first appellate authority has erroneously rejected the refund  application of the
                                     appellant for the unutilised Cenvat credit, not treating it as a duty, in spite of the
                                     fact that the credit availed by the appellant of duty paid during the month on
                                     inputs purchased and used to manufacture the final product could not be uti-
                                     lised by the appellant because of the peculiar provisions of the rules restricting
                                     the availment of Cenvat credit lying on the last day of the previous month and
                                     hence the appellant discharged the duty in cash from PLA. It was also submitted
                                     that due to the peculiar situation as per Rule 16(3) of Packing Machine Rules, the
                                     appellant was not in a position to adjust the accumulated Cenvat credit, although
                                     the same was used in the manufacture of excisable product, for discharging the
                                     duty for the same month in spite of being available in the books of the appellant.
                                            In the impugned order,  the Commissioner  (Appeals) has  stated that
                                     while interpreting the statute the legislative intend has to be considered from the
                                     language used and on could not pay attention to what has not been said. As a

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