MRP valuation applies only where law requires retail sale price declaration; free promotional packs fall under transaction value.

Promotional packs supplied free with another product and marked "Free. Not for Sale" were not assessable under Section 4A on an MRP basis because no law required the declaration of retail sale price for those packs. The valuation regime under Section 4A applies only to packages legally required to bear MRP under the weights and measures framework; where the goods are not retail packages and fall outside the packaged commodities rules, including the exemption for specially packed industry-use goods, valuation must be under Section 4 on transaction value. The MRP-based demand was therefore unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether promotional packs of Maggi noodles supplied free with another product, and marked "Free. Not for Sale", were assessable under Section 4A of the Central Excise Act, 1944 on the basis of MRP, or under Section 4 on transaction value.

Analysis: Section 4A applies only where the package is required under the Standards of Weights and Measures law or any other law to declare the retail sale price. The promotional packs were not sold as retail packages, no MRP was required to be declared, and the packs themselves bore the indication that they were free and not for sale. The Court also held that such supplies fell outside the scope of the relevant packaged commodities rules, and that Rule 34 exempted packages specially packed for the exclusive use of an industry or for servicing that industry. The valuation could therefore not be made under Section 4A merely because the goods were otherwise notified goods.

Conclusion: The goods were correctly assessable under Section 4, not under Section 4A, and the demand based on MRP could not be sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: Section 4A is attracted only when the package is legally required to bear MRP under the applicable weights and measures regime; where promotional goods are supplied free and are not subject to such statutory MRP declaration, valuation must proceed under Section 4.

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