Limitation in excise demand supported waiver of pre-deposit and stay where price lists were regularly filed and approved.

Regular filing and approval of price lists in Proforma III under the excise valuation framework was treated as supporting a prima facie plea that the duty demand was time-barred. The Tribunal found that the show cause notice had not been issued within the one-year limitation period from the relevant date, and this was sufficient to justify waiver of pre-deposit and stay of recovery pending appeal. The reliance on Easland Combines was considered, prima facie, not to fit the facts in proper perspective.

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Issues: Whether, in a proceeding for waiver of pre-deposit and stay of recovery, the applicants had made out a prima facie case that the demand was barred by limitation and that pre-deposit should therefore be waived.

Analysis: The applicants had been regularly filing price lists in Proforma III as required under Rule 173C read with the Central Excise (Valuation) Rules, 1975, and those lists had been approved. On the material before it, the Tribunal found prima facie force in the contention that the demand was time-barred, since the show cause notice had not been issued within one year from the relevant date. The reliance placed by the lower appellate authority on the decision in Easland Combines was found, prima facie, not to have been applied in the proper perspective for the present facts.

Conclusion: The applicants were entitled to waiver of pre-deposit and stay of recovery pending the appeal.

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