DTA clearances by 100% EOUs remain subject to additional duty where amended exemption language covers duties under other laws.

An amended exemption notification for 100% EOU domestic tariff area clearances was read to require duty parity with domestic manufacture by including duties leviable under the Central Excise law or any other law in force. That wording was treated as wide enough to cover additional duty under the Textiles and Textile Articles Act, 1978, so the later amendment displaced reliance on the separate 1991 exemption notification for such clearances. A prior Board circular could not override the amended notification, while the later circular was treated only as a clarification of the correct legal position. The practical effect was that additional duty of excise remained payable on the DTA clearances.

---

---

Issues: Whether a 100% Export Oriented Unit clearing cotton yarn and polyester/cotton yarn in the Domestic Tariff Area from indigenous raw material remained entitled, after amendment of the principal exemption notification, to claim exemption from Additional Duty of Excise under the separate 1991 notification.

Analysis: The amended exemption notification substituted the earlier rate structure with a formula that required DTA clearances by a 100% EOU to bear duty equal to the aggregate of duties leviable under the Central Excise law or under any other law for the time being in force. The expression was treated as wide enough to include the additional duty under the Textiles and Textile Articles Act, 1978, thereby aligning the duty burden of such EOU clearances with that of comparable domestic manufacture. The general exemption notification of 1991 was held not to survive as a separate shield for DTA clearances once the later amendment expressly brought within the levy duties imposed under other laws. The earlier Board circular could not override the amended notification, and the later circular merely clarified the correct legal position.

Conclusion: The Additional Duty of Excise was payable on the DTA clearances, and exemption under the 1991 notification was not available to the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an exemption notification governing DTA clearances by a 100% EOU is amended to include duty under any other law for the time being in force, the amended notification prevails and the unit cannot claim a separate general exemption to ate the additional duty otherwise included within the duty parity formula.

---