Pre-delivery inspection charges excluded from assessable value, with departmental appeal dismissed after clarificatory circular applied retrospectively.

Pre-delivery inspection charges were treated as not includible in the assessable value of motor vehicles after a later Board circular clarified that such charges were excluded and that the clarification applied to past cases. On that basis, the Department's challenge to the Commissioner's order dropping the demand had no surviving merit, and the departmental appeal was dismissed. The stated principle is that where a competent departmental clarification expressly excludes a charge from assessable value and extends that clarification to earlier cases, a contrary demand cannot be sustained.

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Issues: Whether pre-delivery inspection charges were includible in the assessable value of motor vehicles.

Analysis: The Tribunal noted the later Board circular clarifying that pre-delivery inspection charges were not to be included in the assessable value and that the clarification would apply to past cases as well. In view of that clarification, the Department's challenge to the Commissioner's order dropping the demand did not survive.

Conclusion: The charges were held not includible in the assessable value, and the departmental appeal was dismissed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the competent departmental clarification expressly states that a charge is not includible in assessable value and applies to past cases, the contrary departmental appeal lacks merit.

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