Duty exemption certificate refund cannot be denied as dubious when applied for before import and duty burden was not passed on.

A refund claim under Notification No. 152/94 could not be rejected merely because the duty exemption certificate was said to be dubious or issued after import, where the assessee had applied for the certificate before import and it had already been accepted for another import. The use of the imported item for research also rebutted the objection that the incidence of duty had been passed on to others. On these facts, the note indicates that the refund was wrongly denied and that the assessee was entitled to succeed on the exemption-based claim.

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Issues: Whether the refund claim based on the duty exemption certificate under Notification No. 152/94 dated 13-7-1994 was rejectable on the grounds that the certificate was dubious or obtained after import, and whether the refund could be denied on the ground that the incidence of duty had been passed on.

Analysis: The appellants had applied for the duty exemption certificate before the import and the certificate had already been accepted in respect of another import. On the facts, the certificate could not be treated as dubious merely because it was issued after the import date. The imported item was used by the appellant company for research, which negatived the objection that the burden of duty had been passed on to others.

Conclusion: The refund claim was wrongly rejected and the appeal was allowed in favour of the assessee.

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