CT-3 certificate technical defect cannot deny exemption where pre-authenticated booklet use and no misuse is alleged.

Notification No. 1/95-C.E. could not be denied merely because the CT-3 certificate was issued by the officer-in-charge of the 100% EOU rather than the jurisdictional Central Excise Officer. The CT-3 certificate was pre-authenticated, and a trade notice acknowledged the practical difficulty for 100% EOUs in obtaining CT-3 certificates from the jurisdictional officer while permitting use of pre-authenticated CT-3 booklets subject to verification by the Range Superintendent. In the absence of any allegation of misuse or misutilisation of the exemption, the objection was only technical and was not a valid basis to refuse the benefit.

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Issues: Whether the benefit of Notification No. 1/95-C.E. could be denied merely because the CT-3 certificate was issued by the officer-in-charge of the 100% E.O.U. instead of the jurisdictional Central Excise Officer.

Analysis: The CT-3 certificate was found to be duly pre-authenticated. A trade notice recognized the practical difficulty faced by 100% E.O.Us in obtaining CT-3 certificates from the jurisdictional officer and permitted use of pre-authenticated CT-3 booklets with verification through the Range Superintendent. There was no allegation of misutilisation of the exemption benefit, so the objection was treated as technical and not a valid ground to deny the notification benefit.

Conclusion: The denial of exemption was unsustainable and the issue was decided in favour of the assessee.

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