Exemption notification for manufacturing capacity increase applies on overall installed capacity growth, not section-wise expansion in every unit component.

An exemption notification granting relief to an existing manufacturing unit in the North-East Region was interpreted as requiring an overall 25% increase in installed capacity, not a section-wise increase across every part of the plant. The absence of expansion in one section, including the drying section, did not defeat the exemption where the evidence showed the required overall enhancement in capacity. The practical effect is that compliance with the specified percentage increase is assessed at the level of the unit as a whole, rather than by separate capacity increases in each component of the manufacturing process.

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Issues: Whether the benefit of Notification No. 33/99, granting exemption to an existing manufacturing unit in the North-East Region on a 25% increase in installed capacity, could be denied on the ground that the increase was not in each and every section of the unit.

Analysis: The notification did not stipulate that every section of the manufacturing unit must separately show an increase in capacity. The decisive requirement was an overall increase of 25% in installed capacity. Since the evidence accepted below showed such overall enhancement, the Revenue's objection based on the absence of expansion in the drying section alone could not defeat the exemption.

Conclusion: The benefit of the notification was available, and the Revenue's challenge failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an exemption notification requires an increase in installed capacity by a specified percentage, the condition is satisfied by an overall increase in the unit's capacity and not by a section-wise increase in every component of the manufacturing process.

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