Fiscal notification extending excise concession within the same sugar year applied to the full period without retrospective effect.

A later fiscal notification extending concessional excise duty to sugar factories applied to the entire sugar year, because both the earlier exclusion and the later extension operated within the same statutory accounting period. The benefit was therefore available for the full period from 1 May 1982 to 30 September 1982, and the denial of concessional duty was unsustainable. The Court treated this as application within the same year rather than impermissible retrospective operation.

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Issues: Whether the appellant sugar factory was entitled to the concessional rate of excise duty under Notification No. 193/82 dated 11-6-1982 for its entire production from 1 May 1982 to 30 September 1982.

Analysis: The earlier notification had excluded sugar factories, while the later notification extended the concession to them. The relevant "sugar year" ran from 1 October to 30 September, and both notifications operated within the same sugar year. On that basis, the benefit was available for the whole period of the sugar year in question, and the matter did not turn on impermissible retrospective operation of the later notification.

Conclusion: The appellant was entitled to the concessional benefit for the period 1 May 1982 to 30 September 1982, and the denial of the claim was unsustainable.

Ratio Decidendi: Where two fiscal notifications operate within the same statutory accounting period, a later notification extending a benefit to a class of assessees applies to the entire period of that year for that class, without amounting to retrospective operation.

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