Rebate on exported goods cannot be curtailed by re-quantifying export value or ignoring supplementary invoice duty payments.

Rebate under Rule 18 of the Central Excise Rules, 2002 extends to the excise duty actually paid on exported goods, including duty later discharged through supplementary invoices under the contractual price mechanism. The rebate authority may verify admissibility of the claim but cannot reopen the export assessment or re-quantify the rebate by relying on the difference between CIF and FOB values. Where the supplementary duty relates to the exported consignment and the claim is otherwise within limitation, denial of rebate for that portion is unsustainable. The full duty paid on the exported consignments therefore remains eligible for rebate.

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Issues: Whether rebate under Rule 18 of the Central Excise Rules, 2002 could be denied on duty paid through supplementary invoices on the ground that the export documents reflected CIF value instead of FOB value, and whether the rebate authority could go behind the export documents to re-quantify admissible rebate.

Analysis: Rebate under Rule 18 is granted on the duty of excise actually paid on goods exported out of India. The rebate sanctioning authority is required to verify the admissibility of rebate on the duty paid on the exported goods and is not to re-open the assessment of the goods cleared for export. Where an assessee initially clears goods on a provisional value and later makes good the short-paid duty through supplementary invoices in terms of the contractual price mechanism, the entire duty so paid on the exported consignment remains eligible for rebate, provided the claim is otherwise within limitation. The mere fact that the ARE-1 did not initially reflect the additional duty paid later cannot justify denial of rebate for that portion of duty. Since the duty paid represented the transaction value of the exported goods, the distinction between CIF and FOB valuation could not be used to curtail rebate.

Conclusion: The denial and recovery of rebate of the differential duty paid through supplementary invoices was unsustainable, and the assessee was entitled to rebate of the full duty paid on the exported consignments.

Ratio Decidendi: Rebate under Rule 18 extends to the entire excise duty actually paid on exported goods, and the rebate authority cannot deny part of the rebate by re-quantifying the export value or by disregarding duty subsequently paid through supplementary invoices where the duty relates to the exported consignment.

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