Substituted fiscal notification construed beneficially, extending the enhanced export refund where no prospective limit was stated.

A subordinate fiscal notification amended by substitution is to be construed as enlarging the scope of the benefit where no express prospective limitation is stated. The substitution of 2% with 10% in the export refund scheme was treated as a beneficial change, and no presumption could be drawn that the enhanced rate operated only prospectively. The cited authority on substitution supported reading the amended notification according to its enlarged effect. The assessee was therefore entitled to the enhanced 10% refund, and the refusal to grant that benefit from the date of the substituting notification was unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether the amended notification substituting 10% for 2% in the export refund scheme applied to the assessee, and whether the amendment was to be read prospectively so as to deny the enhanced benefit.

Analysis: The substitution of words in subordinate legislation was treated as an ordinary mode of amendment that enlarges the scope of the notification. Since the notification did not expressly provide that the enhanced percentage would operate only prospectively, no presumption of prospective restriction could be drawn. The amendment was viewed as a beneficial change intended to extend the export incentive, and the interpretation adopted in the cited authority on substitution supported that construction.

Conclusion: The assessee was entitled to the enhanced 10% refund benefit, and the denial of the benefit from the date of the substituting notification was unsustainable.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded and the refund was to be determined by applying the substituted notification conferring the higher benefit.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a subordinate fiscal notification is amended by substitution without an express prospective limitation, the substituted provision takes effect according to its beneficial enlarged scope and cannot be confined by implication to a later date.

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