Exemption notification compliance: refund was maintainable without challenging assessment where exemption was available but not claimed initially.

Where imported goods fully satisfied an exemption notification at the time of import, the assessing officer was required to extend the exemption while assessing the bill of entry, even if the importer had not claimed it then. Duty collected in such circumstances resulted from an assessment error rather than from any lack of entitlement. Accordingly, the rule barring refund without first challenging the assessment did not apply on these facts, and the refund claim was maintainable without a prior challenge to the assessment.

---

---

Issues: Whether refund could be claimed without challenging the assessment when the importer had satisfied the conditions of the exemption notification but had omitted to claim the exemption at the time of filing the bill of entry.

Analysis: The goods were covered by the exemption notification and the prescribed conditions stood complied with at the time of import. The assessing officer was therefore required to extend the benefit of exemption while assessing the bill of entry. Since the duty was collected despite availability of exemption, the failure lay in assessment rather than in the importer's entitlement. On those facts, the bar against refund without challenging assessment, applied in cases where the assessment itself is not shown to be erroneous on the available record, did not govern the present dispute.

Conclusion: The refund claim was maintainable without first challenging the assessment, and the importer was entitled to refund.

---