Excise valuation for COCO outlet clearances: retail outlet price cannot replace warehouse transaction value where the outlet is not the place of removal.

Petroleum products cleared from a warehouse to company owned and company operated outlets were held not to be valued at the retail price charged at the outlet. Valuation had to follow the transaction value at the point of removal, because the COCO outlet was not the place of removal for these clearances. The Tribunal relied on settled precedent, including Supreme Court affirmation and the assessee's earlier case on the same issue, to conclude that the retail outlet price could not be substituted for assessable value merely because the goods were later sold there. The demand was therefore not sustainable, and the appeals were allowed.

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Issues: Whether petroleum products cleared from the warehouse to company owned and company operated outlets were liable to be valued on the retail price at the outlet, and whether the impugned demand could survive in view of the settled law on valuation under the excise valuation rules.

Analysis: The dispute turned on whether the COCO outlet price could be treated as the assessable value or whether valuation had to be governed by the transaction value at the point of removal from the warehouse. The Tribunal noted that the issue had already been settled by earlier decisions holding that COCO outlets were not the place of removal for such clearances and that the retail price at the outlet could not be adopted merely because the goods were subsequently sold there. It also relied on the affirmation of the earlier view by the Supreme Court and on the appellant's own earlier case on the same issue.

Conclusion: The demand based on adoption of the COCO outlet retail price was not sustainable, and the appeals were allowed in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: For excise valuation, where goods are cleared from the warehouse to company owned and company operated outlets, the assessable value cannot be substituted by the outlet retail price if the outlet is not the place of removal and the issue is already governed by settled precedent.

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