Annual capacity redetermination requires express statutory authority; a deeming provision alone cannot reopen a prior determination.

The Hot Re-rolling Steel Mills Annual Capacity Determination Rules, 1997 did not authorise redetermination of a mill's annual capacity once it had already been determined. Rule 5, which deems the determined capacity to be equal to actual production during the previous financial year, was held to be only a deeming provision and not an independent source of power to reopen or revise the determination. On that basis, the redetermination order was set aside and the assessee succeeded.

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Issues: Whether the annual capacity of production determined for a hot re-rolling steel mill could be redetermined under the Hot Re-rolling Steel Mills Annual Capacity Determination Rules, 1997.

Analysis: The Rules were examined and it was found that they do not contain any express provision authorising redetermination of annual capacity once determined. Rule 5, though relied upon for support, only provides that the annual capacity determined under the prescribed formula shall be deemed to be equal to the actual production of the mill during the previous financial year. That deeming provision does not create a power to reopen or redetermine the annual capacity.

Conclusion: Redetermination of annual capacity was not permissible under the Rules, and the impugned redetermination order was set aside in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded because the statutory scheme did not authorise a fresh redetermination of annual capacity after determination had already been made.

Ratio Decidendi: A deemed equivalence between determined capacity and actual production does not, by itself, confer a power of redetermination in the absence of an express enabling provision.

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