Accrued excise credit survives omission of the scheme and may be used across units, but cash refund is not permitted.

Under the vanaspati scheme, accrued money-credit could not be refunded in cash because the scheme did not contemplate conversion of credit into monetary refund; relief outside the scheme was therefore unavailable. However, the omission of the scheme did not extinguish accrued credit, as the savings provision preserved rights already earned under the notification. The credit was treated as belonging to the manufacturer and, absent any scheme restriction tying it to one factory, could be utilised against excise duty payable for manufacture at another duly registered unit.

---

---

Issues: (i) Whether money-credit accrued under the vanaspati scheme could be refunded in cash after abolition of the excise duty and cessation of the scheme. (ii) Whether accrued money-credit could be utilised against excise duty payable for manufacture at a different unit of the same manufacturer after the scheme was omitted.

Issue (i): Whether money-credit accrued under the vanaspati scheme could be refunded in cash after abolition of the excise duty and cessation of the scheme.

Analysis: The scheme did not provide for cash refund of accumulated credit. The Court held that relief cannot be granted in a form not contemplated by the scheme itself. Since the scheme only permitted adjustment in the manner prescribed, and not conversion of credit into cash, the claim for monetary refund was outside the scheme.

Conclusion: The claim for cash refund was rejected and the assessee was held not entitled to such relief.

Issue (ii): Whether accrued money-credit could be utilised against excise duty payable for manufacture at a different unit of the same manufacturer after the scheme was omitted.

Analysis: Section 38A of the Central Excise Act, 1944 protects rights, privileges, and liabilities accrued under a rule or notification notwithstanding amendment, repeal, supersession, or rescission, unless a different intention appears. Applying that savings provision, the Court held that omission of the rule did not extinguish the accrued credit. The Court also held that the credit belonged to the manufacturer and was not confined to the particular unit in which it accrued, since the scheme did not restrict utilisation only to the same factory and both units were duly registered and licensed.

Conclusion: The assessee was entitled to utilise the accrued money-credit against duty payable for the later unit.

Final Conclusion: The challenge failed on the cash-refund claim but succeeded on the right to utilise the accrued credit across units, so the matter was disposed of with relief granted only to that extent.

Ratio Decidendi: A saving provision protecting accrued rights on amendment, repeal, or rescission preserves money-credit already earned under an excise scheme, and such accrued credit may be utilised in accordance with the scheme unless the scheme itself clearly restricts its use to a particular unit.

---