Provisional assessment must be finalised return-wise, not by year-long block adjustment; invoice-wise duty demand required fresh recalculation.

Finalisation of provisional assessment must follow the relevant return period for duty accounting, not a year-long block basis. The Tribunal rejected netting excess and short payments across all clearances for the entire period, holding that the assessee was not entitled to block-period adjustment. It also held that differential duty cannot be sustained when worked out invoice-wise without applying the correct month-wise or return-wise basis, so the computation had to be redone and reconsidered without duplication.

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Issues: (i) Whether finalisation of provisional assessment for the relevant period was to be made on a block-period basis with adjustment of excess payment against short payment across all clearances, or month-wise/return-wise; (ii) whether the demand of differential duty worked out invoice-wise could stand.

Issue (i): Whether finalisation of provisional assessment for the relevant period was to be made on a block-period basis with adjustment of excess payment against short payment across all clearances, or month-wise/return-wise.

Analysis: Provisional assessment is meant to be finalised against the relevant assessment framework adopted for duty payment and return filing. The Board's instructions recognise that finalisation of provisional assessment is to be linked to the return period and that differential duty is to be determined for each relevant return cycle. The plea for treating the entire year as one block and netting excess and short payments across all clearances was rejected.

Conclusion: The assessee was not entitled to block-period adjustment across the entire year; that plea was rejected.

Issue (ii): Whether the demand of differential duty worked out invoice-wise could stand.

Analysis: The Tribunal held that assessment at the time of removal is reflected through invoices, but finalisation of provisional assessment is required to be done return-wise and month-wise in accordance with the Board's guidelines. Since the demand had been worked out invoice-wise, it required reconsideration and recalculation on the correct basis without duplication.

Conclusion: The invoice-wise finalisation and demand could not be sustained as such; the matter had to be reworked month-wise/return-wise and sent back for reconsideration.

Final Conclusion: The assessee succeeded only to the limited extent that provisional assessment had to be finalised on the proper month-wise/return-wise basis, while the broader claim for year-long block adjustment was rejected and the duty computation was remitted for fresh working.

Ratio Decidendi: Finalisation of provisional assessment must follow the relevant return period prescribed for duty accounting and cannot be extended into an all-clearances block adjustment merely to net excess and short payments across the whole year.

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