Customs duty computation under exemption notification required 50% of each duty separately, not an aggregated calculation.

Clearances by a 100% export oriented undertaking into the domestic tariff area under Notification No. 2/95-C.E. had to be assessed by applying 50% to each duty of customs separately, because the notification then in force used the wording "50% of each of the duties of customs". That specific language governed the computation and could not be displaced by a later Board circular or by the aggregate-duty formula introduced in the later amended text. The subsequent amendment confirmed that the earlier notification operated differently. The Revenue's method of calculating duty on an aggregated basis was therefore incorrect.

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Issues: Whether, for clearances by a 100% export oriented undertaking into the domestic tariff area during the relevant period, duty under Notification No. 2/95-C.E. was to be computed at 50% of each duty of customs separately or as 50% of the aggregate of customs duties.

Analysis: The relevant notification, as it stood during the material period, used the expression "50% of each of the duties of customs". That wording was held to be significant and to require separate computation of each customs duty, rather than aggregation of duties first and application of a single 50% rate thereafter. The later Board circular of 6-2-2001, which matched the language of Section 3(1) of the Central Excise Act, 1944, could not override the specific wording of the notification applicable to the period in dispute. The subsequent amendment of the notification in 2002 substituted the phrase "50% of the aggregate of the duties of customs", showing that the earlier wording had operated differently. The amendment made in 1999 did not alter the material phrase governing the method of computation.

Conclusion: The duty was required to be computed by taking 50% of each customs duty separately, and the Revenue's method of computation was incorrect.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded and the demand, as sustained on the impugned method of duty calculation, could not stand.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an exemption notification expressly limits relief to 50% of each duty of customs, the computation must follow that precise wording and cannot be expanded by reference to a later circular or to the aggregate-duty formula in the charging provision.

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