Installed capacity change date may rest on contemporaneous evidence, not later departmental verification, under capacity-control procedure.

Where a statutory capacity-change procedure requires prior intimation and prompt departmental action, the effective date of the changed installed capacity may be fixed on reliable contemporaneous evidence of actual change rather than mechanically from later verification by the departmental team. The assessee's uncorroborated assertion of an earlier date was rejected, but contemporaneous correspondence with the local Superintendent supported 24 November 1997 as the operative date. Duty computation was directed to proceed on that basis.

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Issues: Whether the change in the installed capacity of the hot rolling mill was to take effect from the date the assessee asserted the change had been made, from the date of verification by the departmental expert team, or from the earlier date supported by contemporaneous correspondence.

Analysis: The annual capacity rules required the assessee to intimate the proposed change in advance and to obtain prior approval, while the Commissioner was expected to act promptly and determine the date from which the changed capacity would apply. On the facts, the departmental response was delayed, and the change could not reasonably be tied only to the date of the expert team's verification. At the same time, the assessee's uncorroborated assertion that the change occurred on 8 November 1997 was not accepted. The contemporaneous exchange with the local Superintendent, including confirmation of verification of the change on 24 November 1997, provided a reliable basis to fix that date as the effective date of change.

Conclusion: The change in installed capacity was held effective from 24 November 1997, not from 8 November 1997 or from the date of departmental verification.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded to the extent that the effective date of the capacity change was advanced to 24 November 1997, and the duty computation was directed to be made on that basis.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a statutory capacity-change procedure contemplates prior intimation and prompt departmental action, the effective date of the change may be fixed on the basis of reliable contemporaneous evidence of actual change, and not mechanically from the date of later departmental verification.

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