17 December 2014
CENVAT credit is a credit in respect of central excise on inputs purchased for the manufacture or duty paid in relation to the manufacture of the final product.
e.g ABC Ltd is the manufacturer and exporter of toys and it purchases certain components from PQR Ltd for use in manufacture of toys. PQR Ltd would have paid excise duty on components manufactured by it and it would have recovered that excise duty in its sale price from ABC Ltd. Now, ABC Ltd has to pay excise duty on toys manufactured by it as well as bear the excise duty paid by its supplier, PQR Ltd. This amounts to multiple taxation. ABC Ltd can take credit for excise duty paid by PQR Ltd so that lower excise duty is payable by ABC Ltd, at the time of export. This is how CENVAT CREDIT works.