DEPB availment does not automatically defeat customs exemption if notification conditions, including value addition, are met.

Availment of DEPB benefit does not, by itself, bar exemption under Notification No. 32/97-Cus.; the decisive question is whether the importer satisfies the notification's own conditions, including the prescribed value-addition requirement. The Tribunal followed its earlier view that simultaneous DEPB or drawback benefit is not a complete disqualification, but the exemption remains available only on proof of compliance with the stipulated value-addition condition. On the record, such compliance was not established to the Tribunal's satisfaction, yet the denial could not stand solely on the ground of DEPB availment.

---

---

Issues: Whether the benefit of Notification No. 32/97-Cus. could be denied on the ground that DEPB benefit had also been availed, and whether the exemption remained available subject to fulfilment of the prescribed value-addition condition.

Analysis: The Tribunal followed its earlier view that denial of DEPB or drawback benefits, where otherwise applicable, does not by itself disqualify the importer from claiming the notification benefit. The crucial requirement is compliance with the notification conditions, including achievement of the stipulated value addition. On the record before it, the Tribunal was not satisfied that the appellants had established such compliance, but it also found that the impugned denial on the ground of simultaneous DEPB availment could not stand as a complete bar to the notification benefit.

Conclusion: The appellants were held entitled to the benefit of Notification No. 32/97-Cus., subject to their satisfying the authorities that the required value addition had been achieved.

Ratio Decidendi: Availment of DEPB benefit does not, by itself, preclude exemption under the notification if the importer otherwise satisfies the notification's conditions, including the prescribed value-addition requirement.

---