IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. GCR No.8 of 2004 Date of Decision:- 4.5.2010 M/s Godwin Steels (P) Ltd. ...Petitioner Versus Commissioner of Central Excise, Chandigarh ...Respondent CORAM: HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE ASHUTOSH MOHUNTA HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE MEHINDER SINGH SULLAR Present:- Mr.O.P.Goyal, Senior Advocate with Ms.Kanwaljit Kaur, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr.Sushil Gautam, Advocate for Mr.Gurpreet Singh, Sr. Standing Counsel for the respondent. Ashutosh Mohunta, J. (oral) The Customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal has referred the following question of law for adjudication by this Court:- “Whether the Tribunal was right in holding that excise duty is payable for the whole month under Section 3-A of the Central Excise Act read with Rule 96ZP(2) of the Central Excise Rules even where the assessee starts production for the first time during the middle of the month?” Briefly, the facts of this case are that the assessee's factory started production with effect from 17.11.1997. It had opted to pay the duty as per the Compounded Levy Scheme, which came into existence with effect from 1.9.1997. The case of the petitioner was that as its factory was working only for 13 days in the month of November, 1997, therefore, it is liable to pay duty for that period only and not for the entire month. The authorities below, however, imposed the duty for the entire month. After hearing the learned counsel for the parties, we are of the considered opinion that as the petitioner's factory started production with effect from 17.11.1997, therefore, it was wholly unjust for the department to recover the duty for the whole month of November, during which, its factory had not commenced production. When the factory of the petitioner was not in production, then obviously, it is not liable to pay the duty during the period of non-production. In view of the above, the question posed is answered in favour of the assessee and against the revenue. Resultantly, the present reference is accepted. (Ashutosh Mohunta) Judge (Mehinder Singh Sullar) Judge 4.5.2010 AS