Amended export incentive eligibility cannot revive a deleted status-holder cut-off where the exporter satisfies the revised conditions.

An amended export incentive scheme was construed as replacing the earlier eligibility condition requiring the exporter to be a status holder as on 31.03.2003. On that reading, the deleted cut-off could not be read back into the scheme, and the amendment had to be given meaningful effect. As the exporter had met the stipulated 2003-04 turnover and was recognised by the Department as a Star Export House from 01.04.2003, the amended conditions were satisfied. The rejection of the Duty Free Credit Entitlement benefit was therefore set aside and the benefit directed to be extended.

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Issues: Whether the amended Duty Free Credit Entitlement scheme dispensed with the requirement that the exporter be a status holder as on 31.03.2003 and entitled the petitioner to the benefit on satisfaction of the amended conditions.

Analysis: The amended provision was read as substituting the earlier eligibility condition. On that construction, the pre-existing requirement of status-holder recognition as on 31.03.2003 no longer survived. The petitioner had achieved the stipulated export turnover for 2003-04, and the Department's own order had recognized the petitioner as a Star Export House as on 01.04.2003. The respondents' view would have made the amendment redundant and could not be sustained.

Conclusion: The petitioner satisfied the amended scheme conditions and was entitled to the DFCE benefit.

Final Conclusion: The impugned rejection was set aside and the respondents were directed to extend the claimed benefit under the relevant export incentive scheme.

Ratio Decidendi: An amendment to an export incentive scheme must be given meaningful effect, and where the amended wording removes the earlier status-holder cut-off, eligibility cannot be denied by reintroducing the deleted condition.

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