(A.K. Sikri and Rohinton Fali Nariman, JJ.)
Commnr. of Central Excise, Jaipur-I ____ Appellant
v.
M/s. JVS Foods Pvt. Ltd. _______________ Respondent
Civil Appeal No. 2835-2836 of 2005, decided on May 8, 2015
The Order of the court was delivered by
Order
The respondent herein is a 100% Export Oriented Unit and is engaged in the manufacture of nutritious food (product) falling under sub-heading 1901.10 of the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985.
During the period from 13.3.2000 to 17.4.2001 it had supplied the aforesaid product to the Government of Rajasthan under the World Food Programme project. It is not in dispute that in terms of paras 9.10 and 9.26 of the Exim Policy when the aforesaid food products are supplied to the weaker sections of the society free of cost, there is no excise duty payable thereon. The only requirement is that there has to be certificates produced from the concerned authorities that goods were in fact distributed free of cost to the weaker sections under the aforesaid programme which is duly approved by the State Government.
The appellant authorities, however, issued show cause notice which culminated into demand of excise duty on the ground that certificates that were required in this behalf could not be produced. We find that these certificates were duly produced and the Tribunal has taken note of and discussed those certificates in the impugned order and on the basis of which a finding of fact is arrived at that the assesse had in fact distributed the goods free of cost to the economically weaker sections of the society. In these circumstance, the respondent could not be fasten with any liability to pay the excise duty.
We, thus, do not find any reason to interfere with the order of the Tribunal. These appeal are accordingly dismissed.
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