Provisional assessment requires Rule 9B procedure; price variation clauses alone do not extend refund limitation.

Refund under Section 11B of the Central Excises & Salt Act, 1944 must be claimed within six months from the relevant date, and that period is extended only where duty is paid under a valid provisional assessment procedure. A price list stating that prices are subject to variation does not itself make the assessment provisional; provisional assessment arises only when the proper officer follows Rule 9B of the Central Excise Rules, 1944. As no provisional assessment was made and no duty was paid under protest, the relevant date remained the date of duty payment. The refund claims were therefore time-barred.

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Issues: Whether the refund claims were barred by limitation under Section 11B of the Central Excises & Salt Act, 1944, and whether the assessments could be treated as provisional merely because the price list was subject to a price variation clause.

Analysis: The statutory scheme of Section 11B permits refund within six months from the relevant date, and where duty is paid provisionally under the Act or the Rules, the relevant date is the date of adjustment after final assessment. A mere endorsement that prices are subject to variation does not by itself amount to provisional assessment. Provisional assessment arises only where the proper officer resorts to the procedure under Rule 9B of the Central Excise Rules, 1944. Since no provisional assessment was made and no duty was paid under protest, the relevant date remained the date of payment of duty. The authorities were therefore bound by the limitation prescribed in Section 11B.

Conclusion: The refund claims were time-barred, and the assessments could not be treated as provisional for the purpose of extending limitation. The decision was against the assessee and in favour of the Revenue.

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