SSI exemption turnover must exclude another person's brand-name clearances from the aggregate limit calculation.

Clearances bearing another person's brand name are excluded from an assessee's turnover for SSI exemption under Notification No. 8/2003-CE, because paragraph 2(vii) read with paragraph 3A(b) treats such branded goods as outside the relevant aggregate turnover. The article notes that where the earlier unit's branded clearances had already suffered central excise duty, they could not be counted for determining eligibility for small scale exemption on the assessee's own products. The practical effect is that branded clearances of that kind do not reduce or defeat SSI exemption eligibility.

---

---

Issues: Whether the turnover of branded goods manufactured in the earlier unit could be included for determining eligibility to small scale exemption under Notification No. 8/2003-CE dated 01.03.2003.

Analysis: The exclusion in paragraph 2(vii) read with paragraph 3A(b) of Notification No. 8/2003-CE makes it clear that clearances bearing the brand name of another person are not to be included in the assessee's turnover for SSI exemption. The turnover of the earlier branded clearances had already suffered central excise duty and, following the principle laid down in the cited Supreme Court decision, such clearances could not be treated as relevant for reckoning the assessee's entitlement to exemption on its own products.

Conclusion: The inclusion of the turnover of branded goods in the assessee's turnover for SSI limit purposes was unsustainable, and the appeal was allowed.

---