Pro rata duty payment upheld as valid basis for export rebate; rejection cannot stand after final unchallenged order.

Rebate under Notification No. 32/2008-C.E. (N.T.) was held admissible where duty on exported goods had been paid pro rata for the actual period of manufacture. A prior reasoned order on the same duty-payment issue had accepted the pro rata payment as correct, and that order had attained finality because no appeal was filed. In those circumstances, the duty payment could not be treated as invalid for the purpose of denying rebate, and rejection of the claim on the ground that full monthly duty had not been paid was unsustainable. The rebate claim was therefore directed to be allowed.

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Issues: Whether rebate under Notification No. 32/2008-C.E. (N.T.) was admissible where the duty on the exported goods had been paid on a pro rata basis for the period of actual manufacture, and whether rejection of rebate could survive when a subsequent order on the same duty-payment issue had dropped the demand and attained finality.

Analysis: The applicant had commenced manufacture of the notified goods during the month and paid duty proportionately for the period from the date of commencement till the end of the month. The same jurisdictional authority had earlier issued a demand on the identical premise that the duty paid was short, but that demand was dropped by a reasoned order holding the pro rata payment to be correct, and no appeal was filed against that order. In these circumstances, the payment already accepted as correct could not be treated as invalid for denying rebate. The rejection of rebate on the ground that full monthly duty had not been paid therefore could not be sustained.

Conclusion: The rebate claim was admissible and the rejection orders were unsustainable.

Final Conclusion: The revision application succeeded, the impugned appellate order was set aside, and the rebate claim was directed to be allowed in accordance with law.

Ratio Decidendi: Where duty paid on a pro rata basis for the relevant period has been upheld as correct in an unchallenged order on the same issue, rebate cannot be denied on the contrary assumption that the duty was not properly paid.

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