Brand-name clearances for loan licensees excluded from aggregate turnover for small-scale exemption computation.

Clearances made for loan licensees under their brand names and on payment of duty could not be included in the assessee's aggregate clearances for Notification No. 8/2003-C.E. The notification excluded clearances bearing another person's brand name from the exemption computation, and these goods were admittedly manufactured for loan licensees and bore their brand names. On that basis, the Tribunal held that such turnover could not be added to the assessee's own clearances for testing the exemption limit of Rs. 1 crore. The inclusion of those clearances in the exemption turnover was therefore unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether clearances of goods bearing the brand name of the loan licensees, cleared on payment of duty from the assessee's factory, were to be included in the aggregate value of clearances for the purpose of Notification No. 8/2003-C.E. while computing the exemption limit of Rs. 1 crore.

Analysis: The exemption notification excluded from computation clearances bearing the brand name or trade name of another person which were ineligible for exemption under the notification. The clearances in question were admittedly made for the loan licensees, bore their brand names, and had suffered duty. In these circumstances, the value of such clearances could not be added to the assessee's own clearances for determining the aggregate value up to Rs. 1 crore. The Tribunal also noted that the same issue had already been decided in an earlier order following the same principle.

Conclusion: The impugned inclusion of the loan licensees' clearances in the exemption turnover was unsustainable, and the issue was decided in favour of the assessee.

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