Prompt payment discount remains deductible from assessable value even where some buyers pay after the stipulated period.

Prompt payment or cash discount, when provided for under a known contractual and trade scheme, is deductible from assessable value under excise valuation principles. The discount is not disallowed merely because some buyers do not pay within the stipulated period or because delayed payments occur in individual cases. The settled position recognised the discount as an admissible abatement across the board, and the Revenue's attempt to add it back to assessable value was rejected.

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Issues: Whether prompt payment discount of 2% was deductible from the assessable value and could not be added back merely because some buyers paid after the stipulated period.

Analysis: The discount was part of the contractual scheme known to the trade and had been consistently recognised as an admissible deduction. The Tribunal followed its earlier view, including the decision in West Coast Paper Mills Ltd., and accepted the settled position that prompt payment or cash discount is allowable across the board as abatements from assessable value and is not confined only to buyers who actually make prompt payment.

Conclusion: The 2% prompt payment discount was deductible from the assessable value. The Revenue's contention that delayed payment required loading of that amount into assessable value was rejected.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a prompt payment or cash discount is a known contractual and trade discount, it is deductible from assessable value under the excise valuation provisions even if some buyers do not actually satisfy the prompt payment condition.

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