Concessional duty on packaged cement depends on declared retail sale price; industrial buyer status alone does not defeat the benefit.

Cement cleared in packaged form with retail sale price declared on the bags was treated as eligible for concessional duty under Notification No. 04/2007-C.E. The proviso excluding cases where retail sale price is not required to be declared applied only when non-declaration was legally mandated; it could not be used to deny the benefit merely because the buyer was an industrial or institutional consumer. The record showed the bags were sold in 50 kg packs, the price was all-inclusive, and the retail sale price was printed on the bags, with legal metrology authorities indicating that such declaration was mandatory for the supplies in question.

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Issues: Whether cement cleared in packaged form with the retail sale price declared on the bags was entitled to concessional duty under Notification No. 04/2007-C.E., and whether the proviso relating to non-declaration of retail sale price under the Standards of Weights and Measures (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 1977 applied to deny the benefit.

Analysis: The notification granted concessional duty to cement sold in packaged form based on retail sale price. The dispute turned on whether supplies made to APSHCL and similar buyers were outside the packing-price regime so that retail sale price was not required to be declared. The record showed that the cement was sold in 50 kg bags, the transaction price was all-inclusive, and retail sale price was in fact printed on the bags. The proviso to the notification applied only where retail sale price was not required to be declared and thus not declared. The Tribunal held that the mere fact that the goods may not fall within the non-declaration situation under the packaged commodities rules did not bar declaration of retail sale price, and the Revenue had not established any legal prohibition against such declaration. The authorities under legal metrology had also indicated mandatory declaration of retail sale price on the cement bags supplied to APSHCL.

Conclusion: The assessees were entitled to the concessional rate of duty under Notification No. 04/2007-C.E., and the Revenue's appeals failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where cement is sold in packaged form and retail sale price is declared, concessional exemption cannot be denied merely because the buyer may be an industrial or institutional consumer, unless the notification's proviso governing non-declaration of retail sale price squarely applies.

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