Substantive exemption compliance prevails over technical form: general declarations can support transport abatement where conditions are otherwise met.

A goods transport agency's entitlement to 75% abatement under Notification No. 32/2004-S.T. depends on substantive compliance with the conditions that it has not taken Cenvat credit and has not availed the benefit of Notification No. 12/2003-S.T. The benefit cannot be denied merely because compliance was declared in general form rather than by endorsement on each consignment note, where there is no evidence that the declarations were false or that the barred benefits were actually availed. The settled principle applied is that a substantive exemption cannot be refused on a technical procedural objection not found in the notification itself.

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Issues: Whether 75% abatement under Notification No. 32/2004-S.T. could be denied merely because the goods transport agency furnished a general declaration, instead of an endorsement on each consignment note, that it had not availed Cenvat credit or the benefit of Notification No. 12/2003-S.T.

Analysis: Notification No. 32/2004-S.T. grants abatement subject to the conditions that the transport agency has not taken Cenvat credit and has not availed the benefit of Notification No. 12/2003-S.T. The transport agencies had furnished declarations confirming compliance with those conditions. The denial was based only on the form of the declaration, namely that it was not printed on the consignment note. The record did not show any evidence that the declarations were false or that the transport agencies had in fact availed the barred benefits. The Tribunal followed the settled view that the notification does not itself impose the specific procedural requirement insisted upon by the department and that a substantive exemption cannot be denied on such a technical objection.

Conclusion: The denial of abatement was unjustified. The assessee was entitled to the 75% abatement under Notification No. 32/2004-S.T. on the basis of the general declarations, and the demand was liable to be set aside.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the substantive conditions of an exemption notification are met, the benefit cannot be denied merely because the declaration evidencing compliance was furnished in a general form rather than in the particular procedural format insisted upon by the department, unless breach of the notification conditions is proved.

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