SSI exemption threshold excludes exempt job-work clearances; duty demand and penalty could not be sustained.

Clearances made by a job worker under parallel invoices, having already been treated as exempt under Notification No. 214/86-C.E., could not be added to the aggregate value for determining eligibility for SSI exemption under Notification No. 9/2002-C.E. Once those clearances were excluded, the basis for demanding duty at the full rate from the later invoices disappeared, and the consequential penalty also failed. The decision confirms that exempt job-work clearances are not includible in the SSI threshold computation under a separate notification.

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Issues: Whether the value of clearances made as a job worker under parallel invoices was includible in the aggregate value for determining eligibility for the SSI exemption under Notification No. 9/2002-C.E., and whether the resulting demand and penalty were sustainable.

Analysis: The clearances covered by the 36 parallel invoices had already been held eligible for exemption under Notification No. 214/86-C.E. Since those clearances were not liable to be included in the aggregate value for determining the first clearances eligible for concessional treatment under Notification No. 9/2002-C.E., the basis for demanding duty at the full rate from invoice Sl. No. 206 onward disappeared. Once the aggregate value was recomputed without those clearances, the demand and consequential penalty could not stand.

Conclusion: The value of the job-work clearances was not includible in the aggregate turnover for SSI exemption, and the duty demand and penalty were unsustainable.

Ratio Decidendi: Clearances already exempted as job-work clearances under the applicable notification cannot be added to the aggregate value for determining the threshold for SSI exemption under another notification.

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