Provisional assessment and later-quantified discounts remain deductible when the discount scheme is known at clearance.

Discounts under a depot-sale pricing structure were treated as deductible from transaction value where they were known to dealers at clearance but could not be quantified until actual sales were recorded later. The Tribunal noted that the assessee's earlier year had already established that such discounts formed part of the commercial arrangement and that provisional assessment was appropriate when assessable value could not be finally ascertained at removal. Applying that reasoning, the present departmental appeal was covered by the prior decision, the provisional assessment was upheld, and the later quantification of discounts did not defeat deductibility.

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Issues: Whether the respondent was entitled to provisional assessment and deduction of discounts that were known at the time of clearance of goods but quantified later, and whether the departmental appeal challenging the grant of such relief was liable to be dismissed.

Analysis: The dispute turned on discounts extended through depot sales under the assessee's pricing structure. The discounts were stated to be known to dealers before clearance from the factory, but their exact quantification was not possible at the time of removal and was done later on actual sales from depots or consignment agents. The earlier Tribunal decision in the respondent's own case for the preceding year had already examined the same pattern of discounts and held that such discounts were deductible from the transaction value, and that provisional assessment was appropriate when the assessable value could not be finally ascertained at the time of clearance. The present appeal was found to be covered by that decision.

Conclusion: The respondent was entitled to provisional assessment, the discounts were allowable even if quantified later, and the departmental appeal failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where discounts forming part of the commercial arrangement are known at the time of clearance but cannot be quantified then, provisional assessment is justified and the discounts remain deductible from the assessable value when ultimately quantified.

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