Collector of Central Excise Vs. Indo-japan Steels Ltd.

.....excise, calcutta against the same order passed by the collector of central excise-ii, calcutta wherein it was held that the former was liable to pay central excise duty of rs. 1,40,681.20 on 639.460 mt of steel ingots cleared by them from their factory during the period february, 1981 to november 24, 1982 without payment of central excise duty leviable thereon. a penalty of rs. 10,000/- has been imposed by the collector under rule 173q on them. the party has filed an appeal on the ground that they are entitled to the benefit of exemption notification no. 66/73, dated 1-3-1973 and also contended that, penalty could not be imposed on them as there was no intention to evade payment of duty. the department has come up before us in appeal against the order on the ground that penalty imposed by the collector was not inadequate with reference to the duty evaded and in terms of rule 173q it should be more than that.2. when the cases were called, no one appeared on behalf of the assessee but there is a request from them for adjournment in the appeal filed by the department. since the matter is an old one and these are two connected matters, we have proceeded to pass this order after hearing ld. dr for the revenue.3. the collector after taking into consideration the facts and circumstances confirmed the duty and denied the benefit in terms of notification 66/72-c.e., dated 1-3-1973 on the ground that such scraps as fresh unused steel melting scraps which generally arise in an integrated ore-based steel plants and since the factory of the assessee is not an integrated ore-based steel plant, benefit under notification no. 66/73 cannot be extended to the party. in the circumstances he confirmed the duty amount and imposed penalty of rs. 10,000/-. on going through the facts and circumstances of the case and in view of the observations made by the collector while imposing penalty of rs. 10,000/-, we find that penalty was just and reasonable and we are not inclined to.....