Excise rebate on excess sugar production denied where no corresponding base-period production existed under the notification.

Excise rebate under the sugar notification was available only where production in the relevant sugar-year period exceeded production in the corresponding base-year sub-period, so a factory with nil production in that base period could not satisfy the substantive condition. The proviso was construed as excluding factories that had not worked during the base period as a whole; it did not expand the rebate grant or permit rebate on excess sugar production where no comparable base-period production existed. The explanation defining the base period also did not alter this core requirement, and rebate was therefore unavailable on the facts stated.

---

---

Issues: Whether rebate under the excise notification was admissible to a sugar factory that had no production during the corresponding period in the base year, and whether the proviso to the notification permitted rebate on excess production in the sugar year despite such nil production.

Analysis: The notification granted rebate only for sugar produced in the relevant period of the sugar year in excess of the production during the corresponding sub-period in the base year. The proviso, properly construed, did not enlarge the substantive grant under Items 1 to 4 but only excluded factories that had not worked during the base period as a whole. Rebate depended on actual production in the corresponding base sub-period and a comparison of excess production in the sugar year. Nil production in the corresponding period could not satisfy that requirement, and the explanation defining the base period did not alter the substantive condition for rebate.

Conclusion: Rebate was not admissible where there was nil production in the corresponding base period, and the assessees were not entitled to claim rebate on that basis.

Ratio Decidendi: A proviso cannot be used to cut down or rewrite the clear substantive condition in the main notification, and rebate for excess production is available only when there is production in the corresponding base period against which excess can be measured.

---