Retail sale price requirement governs Section 4A valuation; industry-service and wholesale packages fall outside that regime.

Section 4A of the Central Excise Act applies only to excisable goods sold in packages where the law requires declaration of retail sale price; voluntary MRP marking alone does not attract that valuation rule. Packages covered by the wholesale package provisions, or specially packed for exclusive use in or servicing an industry under the Packaged Commodities Rules, fall outside Section 4A and are valued under Section 4. On the facts, ice-cream packs and KITKAT chocolates used for promotional free distribution were outside Section 4A, while telephone instruments, refrigerators, electric filament lamps, and mineral water bottles in retail packs remained assessable under Section 4A.

---

---

Issues: (i) Whether excisable goods are assessable under Section 4A of the Central Excise Act, 1944 only when the package is required under the Standards of Weights and Measures law to declare retail sale price, and whether packages specially packed for servicing an industry are outside the Packaged Commodities Rules; (ii) Whether the disputed commodities - ice-cream packs, KITKAT chocolates sold for promotional free distribution, telephone instruments, refrigerators, electric filament lamps, and mineral water bottles - were assessable under Section 4A or Section 4.

Issue (i): Whether excisable goods are assessable under Section 4A of the Central Excise Act, 1944 only when the package is required under the Standards of Weights and Measures law to declare retail sale price, and whether packages specially packed for servicing an industry are outside the Packaged Commodities Rules.

Analysis: Section 4A applies only where the goods are excisable, are sold in packaged form, the relevant standards law or other law requires declaration of retail sale price on the package, and the Central Government has specified the goods by notification. The nature of sale as wholesale or retail is not decisive by itself. Packages falling within the wholesale package provisions, or exempted by Rule 34 because they are specially packed for the exclusive use of an industry or for servicing an industry, are outside the sweep of the Packaged Commodities Rules and therefore outside Section 4A. A voluntary printing of MRP does not create liability where the statutory requirement to declare it is absent.

Conclusion: Section 4A applies only where the statutory requirement to declare retail sale price exists, and packages covered by the industry-servicing exemption are not governed by the Packaged Commodities Rules; this was held in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether the disputed commodities - ice-cream packs, KITKAT chocolates sold for promotional free distribution, telephone instruments, refrigerators, electric filament lamps, and mineral water bottles - were assessable under Section 4A or Section 4.

Analysis: The four-litre ice-cream pack supplied to hotels for use in servicing the catering industry was treated as a wholesale package and also as a package specially packed for servicing an industry, so there was no requirement to print retail sale price and Section 4A did not apply. The KITKAT chocolates supplied to Pepsi for free distribution with another product were not shown to be packages on which retail sale price was required to be declared, and the promotional circular recognized that the same notified commodity may in some instances be assessed under Section 4 and in others under Section 4A; the exemption for servicing an industry also applied. By contrast, the telephone instruments, refrigerators, electric filament lamps, and the mineral water bottles in a 12-bottle package were packed with MRP declared and were goods whose packages were required to bear retail sale price under the relevant rules; bulk purchase by institutional buyers did not displace the statutory character of the packages as retail packages for valuation purposes.

Conclusion: The ice-cream and KITKAT appeals were governed by Section 4 and succeeded, while the telephone, refrigerator, electric lamp, and mineral water appeals remained assessable under Section 4A and failed; the issue was partly in favour of the assessee and partly in favour of the Revenue.

Final Conclusion: The decision draws the line between packages that are statutorily required to bear retail sale price and packages exempted or not so required, and applies Section 4A only to the former while excluding the latter from that valuation regime.

Ratio Decidendi: Section 4A applies only to excisable goods sold in packages on which the law requires declaration of retail sale price, and not to packages exempted from such requirement or specially packed for servicing an industry.

---