Pre-budget stock declaration non-filing attracts confiscation under excise rules; RG-1 tally does not cure default.

Rule 223B(1) required a registered manufacturer to file a pre-budget declaration of stock before Budget Day, and Rule 223B(2) attached confiscation and penal consequences to non-compliance. The text states that complete non-filing, not a mere defect in form, attracted those consequences, and that tallying stock with RG-1 was immaterial to liability under the rule. It also notes that where penalty under the same provision was accepted, the statutory consequences could not be split to retain the penalty while deleting confiscation. Confiscation was therefore upheld, while the redemption fine was reduced to Rs. 10,000.

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Issues: Whether non-filing of the pre-budget declaration required under Rule 223B(1) of the Central Excise Rules, 1944 justified confiscation of the excisable goods under Rule 223B(2), and whether the redemption fine required interference.

Analysis: Rule 223B(1) cast a statutory obligation on every registered manufacturer to file a pre-budget declaration of stock on the day preceding Budget Day. Rule 223B(2) provided that failure to file the declaration in the prescribed manner attracted penal action and confiscation of the excisable goods in respect of which declaration was not made. The respondents admittedly did not file the declaration at all, and the case was therefore not one of a mere defect in form. Acceptance of the penalty imposed under Rule 223B(2) also supported the view that the statutory consequences under the same provision could not be split up to retain penalty while deleting confiscation. The fact that the stock tallied with RG-1 was held to be immaterial for the purpose of Rule 223B(2).

Conclusion: Confiscation was upheld as valid, and the challenge to its setting aside failed. The redemption fine was, however, reduced from the amount fixed by the original authority to Rs. 10,000/-.

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