Aggregate clearance value includes duty-paid goods later returned, keeping exemption unavailable under the notification.

For exemption under Notification No. 1/93 based on aggregate factory clearances, goods cleared on payment of duty remain part of the clearance tally even if they are later returned under Rule 173H. The later return does not extinguish the original clearance, because the notification looks to the total value of clearances rather than sales alone. Authorities also distinguished decisions concerning deemed exports, repairs, reconditioning, remaking, and other distinct removal provisions as inapplicable. The stated effect was that the value of the originally cleared and returned goods had to be included, so exemption was unavailable.

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Issues: Whether the value of goods cleared on payment of duty and subsequently returned under Rule 173H had to be included in the aggregate value of clearances for availing exemption under Notification No. 1/93.

Analysis: The notification turns on the aggregate value of clearances from the factory, and such clearances are not confined to sales alone. Goods cleared on payment of duty remain clearances within the meaning of the notification, and their later return does not nullify the original clearances. The Tribunal also found the cited decisions inapplicable because they concerned deemed export, inspection, repair, reconditioning, remaking, or receipts and re-clearances under other provisions, none of which governed the issue in hand.

Conclusion: The value of the goods originally cleared and later returned was required to be included in the aggregate clearances, and the exemption was not available to the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The appeal failed and the denial of exemption was sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: For the purpose of an exemption notification based on aggregate clearances, goods validly cleared on payment of duty remain includible even if they are subsequently returned, because the later return does not erase the original clearance.

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