Tariff value assessment under excise law excludes optional Section 4 valuation where notified values govern.

Where tariff values were fixed under Section 3(2) of the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944, that valuation scheme governed assessment and displaced any resort to Section 4 as an alternative. Rule 9-A was read as supporting levy and collection on notified tariff values, and the later insertion of Section 4(3) from 1-10-1975 was treated as confirming an already implicit statutory position. Goods covered by notified tariff values were therefore assessed on that basis alone, and the assessee could not opt for a more beneficial Section 4 valuation.

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Issues: Whether, before 1-10-1975, an assessee whose goods were subject to tariff values fixed under Section 3(2) of the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 could opt to be assessed under Section 4 of that Act if it was more beneficial.

Analysis: Section 3, as it then stood, read with Rule 9-A of the Central Excise Rules, 1944, was held to provide full authority for levy and collection of duty on goods for which tariff values had been notified. The insertion of Section 4(3) with effect from 1-10-1975 was treated as confirming the position already implicit in the scheme of the Act. For goods covered by notified tariff values, the Act provided a mutually exclusive basis of assessment under Section 3(2), and Section 4 was not available as an alternative at the assessee's option.

Conclusion: The assessee had no option to substitute Section 4 valuation for notified tariff values under Section 3(2); the assessment had to proceed on the tariff value basis.

Ratio Decidendi: Where tariff values are fixed under Section 3(2) of the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944, they constitute the governing basis of assessment and exclude recourse to Section 4 as an alternative mode of valuation.

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