Refund of education cess depends on express notification terms; rebate rulings under different schemes do not extend by implication.

Refund under Notification No. 32/99-C.E. was confined to the express terms of the notification, which allowed refund only of specified excise duties paid through the account current and did not extend to education cess paid through PLA. The appellant's reliance on rebate decisions under different notifications was rejected because those provisions dealt with refund of the whole duty on exported goods and used materially different language. Education cess, though part of the duty structure under the Finance Act, 2004, could not be claimed by implication where the notification did not provide for such relief, and the refund claim was held not admissible.

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Issues: Whether education cess paid through PLA was refundable under Notification No. 32/99-C.E., and whether decisions allowing rebate of education cess under different rebate notifications could be applied to claim such refund.

Analysis: Notification No. 32/99-C.E. was held to permit refund only of basic excise duty or additional duty of excise paid from the account current, and not of duty paid from the Cenvat account. The refund claim was confined to the terms of that notification, which did not contain any provision for refund of education cess. The cases relied upon by the appellant concerned rebate notifications dealing with refund of the whole duty on exported goods, and were held to be on materially different language and therefore inapplicable. The decision of the Himachal Pradesh High Court was followed to the extent that education cess, being part of the duty structure under the Finance Act, 2004, could be levied even where basic duty was exempted, but that did not create a refund entitlement under a notification that did not provide for it.

Conclusion: The claim for refund of education cess under Notification No. 32/99-C.E. was not admissible.

Ratio Decidendi: Refund or rebate is governed strictly by the express terms of the notification, and education cess cannot be claimed by implication where the notification limits relief to specified duties paid from PLA.

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