Refund limitation under exemption notification turns on declaration date for earlier payments, while later claims remain subject to Rule 11.

For refund claims under Notification No. 198/76-C.E., the date of filing the exemption declaration was treated as the operative date for examining limitation in respect of duty paid before approval of the declaration and fixation of base clearances. Refunds for such earlier payments were not to be rejected merely because the applications were filed later. After base clearances were approved and the assessee knew the applicable duty position, later payments at the normal rate could not automatically be treated as payments under protest, and those claims remained subject to Rule 11 limitation. The refund claims were therefore partly within time and partly time-barred, with relief confined to the timely periods.

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Issues: Whether refund claims under Notification No. 198/76-C.E. were barred by limitation under Rule 11 of the Central Excise Rules and, if so, from what date the limitation period had to be computed.

Analysis: The relevant principle applied was that, in cases involving exemption under Notification No. 198/76-C.E., the date of filing the declaration for exemption was the operative date for testing the refund claim in relation to the period before approval of the declaration and fixation of base clearances. Refunds for duty paid before the assessee was informed by fixation of base clearances were not to be rejected merely because the actual refund applications were filed later. However, once base clearances had been approved and the assessee knew the applicable duty position, subsequent payments made at the normal rate could not automatically be treated as payments under protest, and claims relating to such later payments remained subject to the limitation period under Rule 11.

Conclusion: The refund claims were partly within time and partly barred by limitation. The appeals were allowed to the extent that refunds were admissible for the periods identified as timely, and rejected for the balance as time-barred.

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