Brand-name cement excluded from exemption limit under Notification No. 12/95-C.E., preserving relief for eligible own-brand clearances.

Notification No. 12/95-C.E. exempted cement subject to conditions and excluded cement bearing another person's brand name or trade name from the benefit. On a plain reading, branded clearances could not be counted towards the 99,000-tonne limit, regardless of whether they were first, last, or intermediate clearances, and the later notification supported that construction. The exemption remained available for the assessee's eligible own-brand cement clearances within the prescribed limit, so the duty demand was unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether cement bearing the brand name or trade name of another person was to be excluded from the 99,000 tonnes limit under Notification No. 12/95-C.E. dated 16-03-1995, and whether the assessee was entitled to exemption on the balance clearances.

Analysis: Notification No. 12/95-C.E. granted exemption to cement subject to specified conditions and expressly excluded cement bearing the brand name or trade name of another person from its benefit. The notification did not provide that branded clearances could be counted towards the 99,000 tonnes limit for concessional clearance. On a plain reading, the exclusion in the proviso applied irrespective of whether such branded cement was cleared at full duty or whether it was the first, last, or intermediate clearance. The later notification, which expressly excluded branded cement from the relevant computation, supported the same construction. The benefit was available to the eligible goods, and the clearances of the assessee's own-brand cement within the prescribed limit could be taken for exemption.

Conclusion: The branded cement was not to be counted for the exemption limit, the assessee's own-brand clearances remained within 99,000 tonnes, and the duty demand was unsustainable.

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