Retail sale price declaration turns on whether the package is a statutory retail package, not on MRP printing alone.

Section 4A of the Central Excise Act applies only where the packaged commodity rules require retail sale price declaration on the relevant package. A group package must be intended for retail sale, while a wholesale package is meant for sale to an intermediary rather than direct sale to a single consumer. On the stated facts, HDPE bags containing 100 poly packs were cleared to distributors and dealers, and the outer bags were treated as wholesale packages that did not require retail price declaration. Mere printing of MRP on such a package does not by itself attract Section 4A.

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Issues: Whether the goods packed by the assessee were packages intended for retail sale so as to attract Section 4A(1) of the Central Excise Act, 1944.

Analysis: Section 4A applies only where the goods are of a kind for which the relevant packaged commodity rules require declaration of retail sale price on the package. A group package under Rule 2(g) of the Standards of Weights and Measures (Packaged Commodity) Rules, 1977 must be intended for retail sale, while a wholesale package under Rule 2(x) is one meant for sale to an intermediary and not for direct sale to a single consumer. On the facts accepted by the Commissioner, the assessee was clearing HDPE bags containing 100 poly packs to distributors and dealers, and the HDPE bags themselves did not require declaration of sale price. Even if the inner poly packs were retail packages, the outer HDPE bags answered the description of wholesale packages and were not group packages. Mere mention of MRP on a package, without a statutory requirement to declare retail sale price on that package, does not by itself attract Section 4A.

Conclusion: Section 4A(1) was not applicable to the goods in question and the assessee succeeded on merits.

Ratio Decidendi: Liability under Section 4A depends on whether the package is one on which the packaged commodity rules mandate declaration of retail sale price; a package sold to intermediaries as a wholesale package does not become a retail package merely because MRP is printed on it.

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