Periodicity and frequency of CAS-4 certificate
Neither CAS-4 nor Excise Valuation Rules prescribe frequency or periodicity of CAS-4 certificate.
Department is of the view that excise duty should be paid on provisional basis. At the end of financial year, CAS-4 should be issued by 31st December of next financial year e.g. CAS-4 for 2016-17 should be submitted before 31-12-2017. On basis of such report, provisional assessment should be finalized – CBE&C instruction No. 206/01/2017-CX.6 dated 16-2-2017.
It seems assessee may pay GST on basis of provisional CAS-4 and then pay difference at end of financial year by producing final CAS-4 certificate.
In Hindustan Zinc Ltd. v. CCE 2006 (198) ELT 446 (CESTAT), at the request of assessee, it was ordered that cost of production for the year should be calculated on basis of audited balance sheet and P&L account for the year.
In Essar Steel India v. CCE (2014) 307 ELT 569 (CESTAT), assessee was calculating cost on periodic basis and paying excise duty. The cost was varying as cost of major input was varying. Department insisted that cost should be calculated on annual basis. When cost was calculated on annual basis, it was found that in some months excess duty was paid while in some months, less duty was paid, though on an average duty paid was more. Department issued demand in respect of months in which duty was short paid. It was held that no further duty was payable by assessee – same view in Essar Steel India Ltd. v. CCE (2016) 75245 = 59 GST 34 = 345 ELT 139 (CESTAT).
In Jindal Steel v. CCE (2016) 342 ELT 253 (CESTAT), duty was paid on provisional basis and at end of year, CAS-4 certificate was obtained. In some months, the duty paid was more while in some months, duty paid was less, though overall difference was marginal department demanded duty only for months where there was short payment. It was held that only net excess or shortage of payment of duty should be considered and not month-wise.