Duty-paid presumption and provisional assessment rules shape refund redetermination, subject to limitation under customs law.

Goods bought from the open market under proper bills are ordinarily presumed to be duty-paid, and the burden shifts to the department to prove otherwise. A bond executed for provisional assessment takes effect from the date of execution, even if formal acceptance follows later. For refund purposes, the relevant date is the clearance of the finished goods, and deductions for wastage in the manufacture of the base material were not justified on the facts stated. Rule 11 limitation was applied as being in pari materia with Section 27 of the Customs Act, 1962, and the refund was to be redetermined subject to that limitation.

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Issues: Whether goods purchased from the open market under proper bills could be presumed to be duty-paid, whether the assessee's assessments were provisional under the executed bond, and whether the refund claim and quantum required redetermination without the deductions made by the Collector.

Analysis: Goods purchased from the open market under proper bills ordinarily enter commerce only after discharge of duty, and it would be unreasonable to require every purchaser to produce direct proof of duty payment. If the department alleges that such goods are non-duty-paid, the burden lies on it to establish that fact. The bond executed for provisional assessment operated from the date of execution, and the delay in formal acceptance did not postpone its effectiveness. The relevant date for relief was the date of clearance of the finished goods, not the date of purchase of the input material. Since the refund claim related to duty paid on teleprinter tapes/rolls, deduction on account of wastage in the manufacture of the base material was not justified. At the same time, the limitation provision in Rule 11 was held applicable, being in pari materia with Section 27 of the Customs Act, 1962.

Conclusion: The assessee succeeded on the substantive refund issues, and the Collector's order was set aside with a direction to redetermine the relief in accordance with the Tribunal's findings, subject to the applicable limitation rule.

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