Self-assessment refund cannot reopen an unchallenged assessment or claim unavailed exemption after clearance.

Refund of duty was held inadmissible where exemption under Notification No. 6/2002-CE was claimed only after clearance of goods on self-assessment. The Tribunal stated that no provisional assessment had been followed and the original assessment had neither been varied nor set aside. In that situation, refund proceedings could not be used to examine or reopen the validity of the completed assessment. The same principle applied to self-assessment: exemption not claimed at the time of clearance could not later be secured by refund unless the assessment was first challenged and modified.

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Issues: Whether refund of duty was admissible when exemption under Notification No. 6/2002-CE was claimed after clearance of goods on payment of duty under self-assessment without the original assessment being varied or challenged.

Analysis: The refund claim was based on subsequent production of the certificate required for exemption under Notification No. 6/2002-CE. The Tribunal held that the goods were cleared on self-assessment, no provisional assessment procedure had been followed, and the original assessment had neither been modified nor set aside. In such a situation, refund could not be granted because the validity of the assessment could not be examined in refund proceedings. The settled position applied equally to self-assessment, and exemption not claimed at the time of assessment could not be subsequently claimed by way of refund without first challenging the assessment.

Conclusion: The refund claim was not admissible, and the Revenue succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: A refund claim cannot be used to indirectly reopen an unchallenged self-assessment or to claim exemption not taken at the time of clearance; the assessment must first be varied or set aside.

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