Provisional assessment requires an express order; self-styled provisional payment cannot trigger differential duty demand under excise rules.

Provisional assessment under the central excise scheme requires an express order by the proper authority; a taxpayer's own statement that duty is paid on a provisional basis, or subject to later cost finalisation, does not itself create provisional assessment. In the absence of such an order, the department cannot use Rule 9B finalisation machinery to demand differential duty or interest. The text also notes that where assessees themselves compute and pay differential duty after final accounts, the revenue must still proceed through a regular demand within limitation if it seeks recovery. The resulting demand based on purported finalisation was held unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether the clearances and duty payments could be treated as provisional assessment in the absence of an express order under Rule 9B of the Central Excise Rules, 1944, and whether the department could thereafter finalize the assessment and demand differential duty and interest.

Analysis: The order records that provisional assessment under the excise scheme requires an express order by the proper authority. Mere intimation by the assessee that duty was being paid on a provisional basis, or payment of duty subject to later cost finalization, did not by itself create a provisional assessment. In the absence of such an order, the department could not invoke the machinery for finalization under Rule 9B to raise a demand for differential duty and interest. The order also notes that the assessees themselves had calculated and paid the differential duty after finalization of accounts, and that the revenue had not proceeded by a regular demand notice within limitation.

Conclusion: The clearances were not liable to be treated as provisional assessment, and the departmental demand based on finalization was unsustainable.

Final Conclusion: The impugned orders were upheld and the revenue appeals failed.

Ratio Decidendi: An assessment can be finalized and differential duty demanded under Rule 9B only when an express order of provisional assessment exists; self-styled provisional payment by the assessee does not confer that jurisdiction on the department.

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