Terna Ssk Ltd. Vs. Commissioner of Cen. Excise

1. the above appeal arises out of the order of the commissioner of central excise, aurangabad rejecting permission to the appellants to transfer input credit balance lying in their distillery unit to their sugar unit under the provisions of rules 57af of the central excise rules, 1944. "rules 57af. transfer of credit- (1) if an manufacturer of the final products shifts his factory to another site or thefactory is transferred ton account of change in ownership or on account of sale, merger, amalgamation, lease or transfer of thefactory to a joint venture with the specific provision for transfer of liabilities of such factory, then the manufacturer shall be allowed to transfer the cenvat credit lying unutilised in his accounts to such transferred, sold, merged, leased or amalgamated factory (2) the transfer of the cenvat credit under sub-rule (1) shall be allowed only if the stock of inputs as such or in process, or the capital goods is also transferred along with the factory to the new site or ownership and the inputs, or capital goods, on which credit has been availed of are duly accounted for to the satisfaction of the commissioner." we find that although earlier the appellants had different l-4 licence for their distillery unit and sugar unit, a common registration certificate was issued for both units by the jurisdictional supdt. vide his letter dated 11.1.2001 on the request dated 10.1.2001 of the appellants. since the ground for rejection of permission for transfer of input credit balance is no longer available, we hold that the appellants are eligible to transfer input credit balance lying in their distillery unit to their sugar unit in terms of rule 57af of the central excise rules 1944 in the light of the tribunal's order in the case of orient ceramics (p) ltd. v. cce, meerut.ii [20019130)elt 528], holding that when one unit was clubbed with the other, merger of units had taken place. we, therefore, set aside the impugned order and allow the appeal.