Duty liability on duty-free goods under CT3 certificates rests on the recipient when exemption is unavailable.

Duty liability on furniture cleared under CT3 certificates was held to rest on the recipient assessee because the goods were found not covered by Notification No. 123/81 and therefore not eligible for duty-free receipt. Since central excise duty is an indirect levy, the burden ordinarily falls on the purchaser or recipient, and the de novo adjudication was confined to identifying the proper person liable under the earlier remand and applicable case law. On that basis, the recipient assessee was treated as the liable party, and the dispatching company was not fixed with the duty demand.

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Issues: Whether duty liability on duty-free furniture received under CT3 certificates was to be fixed on the recipient assessee or on the dispatching company when the goods were found not entitled to exemption under Notification No. 123/81 dated 2-6-81.

Analysis: The items were held not covered by the exemption notification, so they could not have been received without payment of central excise duty. As excise duty is an indirect tax, the duty burden ordinarily falls on the purchaser or recipient of the goods. The de novo adjudication was limited to identifying the proper person liable in the light of the earlier remand and the applicable case law, and on that basis the recipient assessee was treated as the proper person on whom the duty liability rested.

Conclusion: The duty liability was correctly fixed on the assessee, not on the dispatching company.

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