Judgment:
Jyoti Balasundaram
In this case, adjudicating authority disallowed the facility of payment of duties by the assessees in installments under Rule 8 (1) of the Central Excise Rules, 1944, for the reason that the assessee had defaulted by delaying payment on three occasions in the financial year 2000-01 duty amount Rs.79,000/- payable in the second fortnight of July 2000 was made on 7.8.2000 while the date by which the payment was to be made was 5.8.2000; Rs.1,17,500/- being duty payable for goods cleared in the second fortnight of October 2000 was paid on 6.11.2000 when the last date for payment was 5.11.2000 and Rs.36,000/- being duty payable for clearances in the second fortnight of March 01 was paid on 12.4.2001 when the last date for payment of such duty was 31.3.2001. The Commissioner (Appeals) accepted the contention of the assessees that they could not be held to have delayed payment of Rs.1,17,500/- for the reason that the last date for payment viz. 5.11.2000 was a Sunday and payment was made on the very next day viz. 6.11.2000 which was a working day being Monday; he, therefore, held that there was no default on more than two occasions so as to justify withdrawal of the facility to pay duty on fortnightly basis; hence this appeal of the Revenue.
2). We have heard both sides. We find that the question as to whether payment of duty on the working day immediately after the last date due for payment is delayed payment has been decided in favour of the assessees by the Hon’ble Bombay High Court in Indian Seamless Steel and Alloys Ltd. Vs Union of India, 2003 (156) ELT 945 (Bom), wherein the High Court has held that when the due date was Sunday when revenues bank was closed and the duty was deposited by cheque on the next working day, there was no default in payment on the due date. The Court also relied upon Section 10 of General Clauses Act, 1897 when coming to this conclusion. Following the above decision, we accept the contention of the assessees that they had not defaulted in payment of duty on more than two occasions so as to warrant withdrawal of the fortnightly payment facility, uphold the impugned order and reject the appeal.