Remand compliance requires strict adherence to remand directions, with duty and penalty re-quantified without reopening settled issues.

An adjudicating authority must act strictly within the scope of a remand order and cannot reopen issues already settled by the remand directions. Here, the later order exceeded the remand by reconsidering the merits instead of limiting itself to re-quantification. The correct approach required application of the proper anti-dumping notification rate, exclusion of anti-dumping duty from the countervailing duty base, acceptance of the declared value, and re-calculation of penalty within the prescribed ceiling linked to the revised duty. The impugned order was therefore unsustainable, and the matter had to be remanded for fresh quantification of duty, interest and penalty in line with the earlier directions.

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Issues: Whether the adjudicating authority complied with the earlier remand directions of the Tribunal and whether the duty, interest and penalty were required to be re-quantified in accordance with those directions.

Analysis: The earlier remand had accepted the assessee's objections on three matters: excess anti-dumping duty payment, exclusion of anti-dumping duty while computing countervailing duty, and erroneous enhancement of value by treating the goods as of the wrong origin. The later order, instead of limiting itself to re-quantification, went back into the merits and did not follow the remand mandate. The imported goods were therefore required to be assessed by applying the correct anti-dumping notification rate, excluding anti-dumping duty from the countervailing duty base, accepting the declared value, and limiting penalty to the prescribed ceiling linked to the re-calculated duty.

Conclusion: The impugned order could not be sustained and the matter was remanded for fresh re-quantification of duty, interest and penalty in accordance with the earlier directions.

Final Conclusion: The assessee obtained relief on the remand-compliance and re-assessment questions, with the matter sent back for limited re-determination rather than a final merits determination.

Ratio Decidendi: An adjudicating authority must act strictly within the scope of a remand order and cannot reopen issues already concluded by the remand directions; duty and penalty must be re-quantified accordingly.

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