Account current adjustment for excess excise duty prevails under the earlier RT-12 procedure; refund under Section 11B is not exclusive.

Where the applicable excise assessment procedure authorised adjustment through the account current, excess duty paid under RT-12 assessments could be taken as credit in that account rather than being forced into the refund route. The later amendment to the self-assessment procedure operated prospectively and did not displace the earlier mechanism for the relevant period. Board circulars were consistent with that prospective application, and the assessment orders themselves permitted debit and credit adjustments. Section 11B was therefore not the exclusive remedy for the excess payment under the earlier regime.

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Issues: Whether excess duty paid pursuant to RT-12 assessments under Rule 173-I of the Central Excise Rules, 1944 could be adjusted by credit in the account current, or whether the assessee was required to seek refund under Section 11B of the Central Excise Act, 1944.

Analysis: Rule 173-I, as applicable to the relevant period, contemplated that where duty assessed was less than duty paid, the assessee would take credit in the account current, and where duty paid was short, the deficiency would be made good by debit in the account current. The amendment introducing the new procedure applied prospectively, and the Board's circulars clarified that the revised self-assessment procedure would apply only to RT-12 returns for the period after the change. The assessment orders had themselves permitted debit and credit adjustments, and the Tribunal's earlier decision on the same procedural framework supported that position. The view that Section 11B governed the excess payment was therefore not accepted.

Conclusion: The assessee was entitled to take credit on the basis of the RT-12 assessment orders, and refund under Section 11B was not the exclusive remedy.

Final Conclusion: The Revenue's challenge to the credit and debit adjustments failed, and the assessee's position was upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the applicable excise assessment procedure itself authorises adjustment through the account current, a subsequent amendment operating prospectively does not displace that mechanism or compel resort to the refund provision for excess duty paid under the earlier regime.

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