Protest-based valuation claim sustained: revised price-lists accepted and refund granted for disputed excise clearances.

Revised price-lists for clearances to Government, Government undertakings and local bodies were held to be acceptable where the assessee had earlier filed the correct price-lists, faced departmental refusal, and cleared goods under express protest while pursuing appellate remedies. The later delay in filing fresh price-lists was treated as a procedural lapse that did not extinguish the claim, because the protest preserved the dispute over valuation and duty. The approval mechanism under the excise rules did not defeat relief once the Department had rejected the true price-list. Reassessment and refund were therefore payable for the goods covered by the protest.

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Issues: Whether the revised price-list filed after the initial departmental refusal and after the assessee's protest could be accepted for the clearances already made to Government, Government undertakings and local bodies, with consequential refund.

Analysis: The assessee had originally filed price-lists for different classes of buyers, but the Department returned them and insisted on a single price. The assessee then cleared the goods at the industrial-consumer price while expressly paying duty under protest, pursued the appellate remedy, and ultimately obtained a favourable decision on the correct basis of valuation. The later delay in filing fresh price-lists was treated as a lapse, but not one that destroyed the claim, because the protest kept the demand alive. The Department's reliance on the approval mechanism under the relevant excise rules did not prevail where the assessee had already been denied acceptance of its true price-list and had continued under protest.

Conclusion: The revised price-list was required to be accepted for the goods covered by the protest, and consequential relief by way of reassessment and refund was payable to the assessee.

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