Beneficial exemption notifications apply to the full intended period, and prior duty payment cannot defeat rebate entitlement.

A substituted exemption notification extending rebate on sugar production during the lean season was construed to apply to the entire exempted period from 1 May 1982, not only from the date of substitution. The later notification was read purposively to advance the scheme's object of encouraging production, so factories covered by the amended paragraph 4 were entitled to rebate for sugar produced between 1 May 1982 and 11 June 1982. Duty already paid for that period did not defeat the entitlement once the levy stood withdrawn, and the amount had to be credited or retained in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether the amended exemption notification substituting paragraph 4 of Notification No. 132 of 1982 applied to sugar produced during the period from 1 May 1982 to 11 June 1982, and whether duty already paid for that period could still be refunded or credited.

Analysis: Notification No. 132 of 1982 granted rebate on excess production of sugar during the specified period, but paragraph 4 initially excluded factories having nil production in the preceding three sugar years. Notification No. 193 of 1982 substituted paragraph 4 and expressly extended the exemption to entire production during May to September 1982 where production in the preceding three sugar years was nil. The substituted language showed that the later notification was intended to operate in relation to the whole exempted period beginning 1 May 1982, and a construction restricting it only from 11 June 1982 would defeat the object of the scheme, which was to encourage production during the lean season. The fact that duty had already been paid did not defeat entitlement once the levy stood withdrawn by the valid notification.

Conclusion: The assessee was entitled to the rebate under Notification No. 193 of 1982 for the period from 1 May 1982 to 11 June 1982, and the duty already paid for that period had to be credited or retained in its favour.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a beneficial exemption notification is substituted so as to extend the exemption to a class of assessees for the relevant period, the substituted provision must be construed to advance the object of the notification, and duty already paid cannot be denied refund or credit merely because payment was made before the substitution took effect.

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