Excise exemption on duty-paid inputs does not cover nil-duty raw material; actual payment is required.

The phrase "on which the appropriate amount of duty of excise has already been paid" in the exemption notification requires that the raw material must have actually suffered excise duty at the correct or specified rate. Where the raw material was not liable to duty or the duty payable was nil, no duty was in fact paid and the exemption does not apply. The notification is directed at avoiding cascading duty, but only when duty has already been paid on the input material.

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Issues: Whether the phrase "on which the appropriate amount of duty of excise has already been paid" in the exemption notification covers goods made from raw material on which no excise duty was actually paid because the duty was nil.

Analysis: The expression must be read as requiring that the raw material should, in fact, have suffered excise duty at the correct or specified rate. The emphasis is on the words "has already been paid", and the notification is intended to prevent cascading of duty on raw material and the product manufactured from it. Where the raw material is not liable to duty or the duty payable is nil, no duty is actually paid and the exemption does not apply.

Conclusion: The phrase does not extend to cases where no excise duty was actually paid on the raw material, including cases of nil duty; the exemption is available only when the correct amount of duty has been paid.

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