Excise valuation of petroleum clearances: COCO outlet sale price and post-removal charges were excluded from assessable value.

Petroleum products cleared from a warehouse to company-owned and company-operated outlets were discussed on the question of valuation under central excise law. Following earlier Tribunal rulings, including the assessee's own case, and the Supreme Court's affirmation of that settled position, the COCO outlets were not treated as the place of removal for the disputed clearances. As a result, the COCO sale price could not be adopted as the assessable value, and freight-related post-removal charges such as FDZ and SSLF charges were not includible in the value of the goods. The demand based on those charges was therefore held unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether petroleum products cleared from the warehouse to company-owned and company-operated outlets were to be valued under the central excise valuation provisions on the basis of the COCO sale price, and whether FDZ charges and SSLF charges were includible in the assessable value.

Analysis: The issue had already been settled by earlier Tribunal decisions, including the decision in the assessee's own case, and the same view had been affirmed by the Supreme Court. On that settled position, the COCO outlets were not treated as the place of removal for the disputed clearances. Accordingly, the sale price at the COCO outlets could not be adopted as the assessable value, and the freight-related and similar post-removal charges were not liable to be added to the value of the goods.

Conclusion: The demand raised on account of FDZ charges and SSLF charges was not sustainable, and the assessee succeeded on the valuation issue.

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