Provisional assessment recovery permits differential duty to be collected on finalisation without a separate show cause notice.

Where duty is finalised after a provisional assessment, the differential amount becomes recoverable under the provisional-assessment scheme itself. The text explains that once the proper officer determines the final liability, the assessee must pay any shortfall without a separate show cause notice under the ordinary short-levy machinery in Section 11A. It further notes that the limitation objection failed because the reliance placed on another decision was inapplicable to a case involving provisional assessment. The operative point is that recovery of differential duty follows the statutory framework of provisional assessment and does not require a distinct Section 11A demand.

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Issues: Whether differential duty arising on finalisation of provisional assessment could be recovered without a show cause notice under Section 11A of the Central Excise Act, 1944.

Analysis: The clearances were made under provisional assessment governed by Rule 9B of the Central Excise Rules, 1944. On finalisation of that assessment, the assessee became liable to pay the differential duty, if any, determined by the proper officer. The recovery in such a case flows from the statutory scheme of provisional assessment itself and is not governed by the ordinary machinery for short-levy recovery under Section 11A. The demand related only to the quantified short-payment on account of inclusion of siding and shunting charges, and the case relied upon by the assessee on limitation was found inapplicable because it concerned a different factual setting where the assessments were not provisional.

Conclusion: The differential duty was recoverable on finalisation of provisional assessment without a separate show cause notice under Section 11A, and the objection based on limitation failed.

Final Conclusion: The demand of differential duty on finalisation of provisional assessment was sustained, while the impugned adjudication was treated as unnecessary in view of the statutory mechanism governing provisional assessment.

Ratio Decidendi: Where duty is determined on finalisation of a provisional assessment, the liability to pay the differential amount arises under the provisional-assessment scheme itself and does not require a separate demand under Section 11A.

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