Exemption under a later customs notification depends on compliance with conditions in the earlier notification it incorporates.

Notification No. 34/98-Cus. granted exemption from special additional duty only to goods covered by Notification No. 34/97-Cus. and only subject to the conditions attached to that earlier notification. The conditions in paragraph 2 of Notification No. 34/97-Cus., including debit of duty elements in the DEPB pass book, were therefore mandatory and could not be ignored when claiming the later exemption. Notification No. 56/98-Cus., which provided a NIL rate, applied prospectively from 01.08.1998 and did not affect earlier imports. Relief was thus unavailable where the earlier notification's conditions were not satisfied.

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Issues: Whether exemption from special additional duty of customs under Notification No. 34/98-Cus. for goods covered by Notification No. 34/97-Cus. was available without complying with the conditions in Notification No. 34/97-Cus., including debit of duty elements in the DEPB pass book.

Analysis: Notification No. 34/98-Cus. exempted only those goods falling under the specified notifications, subject to the conditions, if any, attached to those notifications. The reference in Sl. No. 13 to goods covered by Notification No. 34/97-Cus. made the earlier notification an integral part of the later exemption. The conditions in paragraph 2 of Notification No. 34/97-Cus. were therefore not surplusage and had to be satisfied before claiming exemption from special additional duty under Notification No. 34/98-Cus. The later Notification No. 56/98-Cus. granting NIL rate operated prospectively from 01.08.1998 and did not govern imports made earlier.

Conclusion: The exemption under Notification No. 34/98-Cus. was available only on compliance with the conditions of Notification No. 34/97-Cus., and the appellants were not entitled to relief. The claim to reverse the DEPB debit failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a later exemption notification grants relief to goods covered by an earlier notification subject to the conditions of that earlier notification, compliance with those conditions is mandatory and the later notification operates prospectively from its own date of issuance.

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