Per S.L. Peeran :

This appeal arises from the order-original No. 4/87 dated 27.4.97 passed by the Collector of Central Excise, Hyderabad confirming duty of Rs. 34,20,783.50 under Rule 9 (2) of the CE Rules, 1944 read with proviso to Section 11A of the CE Act, 1944 and imposing a penalty of Rs. 7 lakhs under various provisions of the rules. The main charge against the appellants is that on visit of the jurisdictional officers to the factory and on verification of the stock they found shortage of 5070 Mtrs of HDPE fabrics and 3175 numbers of HDPE woven sacks with reference to the entries in the RG1 register. Further they found from the files a statement submitted by the appellants to the Bank of India main Branch, Hyderabad which indicated stock and production of 11,68,120 Mtrs of HDPE fabrics valued at Rs. 7,92,844 and 9,22,8 Rs. 17,24,250. It was found that the appellants had not made entries of these in the statutory records. Therefore it was concluded by the investigating officers after recording statement from the Deputy Chief Manager of Bank of India, Main Branch Shri GR Rao, that the appellants had clandestinely manufactured and removed this quantity of goods without payme