Declared retail sale price for packaged cement preserves concessional duty benefit, even where the buyer is an industrial consumer.

Packaged cement supplied under a contract with a declared retail sale price remained eligible for concessional duty under the exemption notification. The transaction price was treated as the maximum sale price and corresponded to the retail sale price, so the benefit could not be denied merely because the buyer was an industrial consumer. The proviso invoked by Revenue applied only where declaration of retail sale price was not required and had not been made. The commentary follows the Tribunal's earlier view that refund sanction was proper on these facts.

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Issues: Whether cement supplied in packaged form to a housing corporation was entitled to the concessional duty under the exemption notification where the retail sale price was printed and declared, and whether the goods were outside the Standards of Weights and Measures (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 1977 so as to deny the benefit.

Analysis: The Notification granting concessional duty turned on sale of cement in packaged form with a declared retail sale price. The Tribunal held that the transaction price under the supply contract represented the maximum price at which the goods were sold and corresponded to the retail sale price. Once cement was sold in packaged form and the retail sale price was declared, the benefit could not be denied merely because the supplies were made to an industrial consumer. The proviso relied upon by the Revenue applied only where the retail sale price was not required to be declared and was in fact not declared. The Tribunal followed its earlier decision on the same issue and found no infirmity in the refund sanction.

Conclusion: The Revenue's challenge failed and the assessee remained entitled to the refund based on the concessional rate under the notification.

Ratio Decidendi: Where packaged cement is sold at a declared retail sale price, exemption or concessional duty cannot be denied merely because the buyer is treated as an industrial consumer or because the goods are said to fall outside the obligation to print the retail sale price.

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