PTI reported that steel makers in Punjab have termed the excise duty demand raised by the central excise department as unjustified and has sought intervention of the chairman of Central Board of Excise and Customs in the matter.

As per report, peeved over the manner under which show cause notices are issued to several steel manufacturing firms at Khanna in Ludhiana, the Confederation of Indian Steel Producers Association has even charged the central excise department officials of adopting pick and choose approach.

Mr Vinod Vashisht chairman of CISPA, also President of All India Steel Rerollers Association, told PTI that “The department has indulged in pick and choose method in issuing show cause notices to firms had the excise officials honest in their approach, notices would have been served upon all the units as the industry as a whole follows cash discount practice and claims burning losses.”

Mr Vashisht said that “This is an old practice which is being followed in which we get discount from our suppliers on payment of input and we also offer discount to our buyers on finished product. There is no way where the excise department suffers any loss. Steel rolling mills get discount on raw material supplies from induction furnaces if the payment is made within a certain timeframe.”

According to CISPA, the department has raised excise duty demand over INR 5 crore by issuing notices to several steel rolling mills in Punjab after auditing their accounts.

The excise department has slapped demand notices on steel units after raising objection to industry's 'cash discount' practice and quantum of burning loss being shown in production. The audit wing of the department has demanded excise duty from steel rolling mills be paid on the cash discount being availed from the input supplier.

(Sourced from PTI)