Provisional duty deposit against anticipated clearance must be credited back when no clearance occurs and final assessment is nil.

A provisional payment made under AR-I for anticipated Budget Day clearance was treated as a deposit, not as duty arising from an adjudicated liability. Because no clearance actually took place and the final assessment was nil, the amount had to be restored by credit in the Personal Ledger Account on the date of final assessment. The matter was not one of adjudication, so the assessee was wrongly pushed to the refund route. The claim could not be rejected as time-barred under refund limitation, and relief followed by setting aside the rejection and directing consequential credit.

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Issues: Whether duty paid on a provisional AR-I for anticipated Budget Day clearance, where no clearance actually took place and the final assessment was nil, was required to be refunded through the regular refund procedure or credited in the Personal Ledger Account on the same date.

Analysis: The payment made under the provisional AR-I was treated as a deposit against an anticipated clearance and not as a duty payment arising from an adjudicated liability. Since no clearance occurred on the Budget Day, the amount should have been restored by giving suitable credit in the Personal Ledger Account on the date of final assessment. The matter did not involve adjudication, and the assessee was wrongly directed to pursue the refund route.

Conclusion: The assessee was entitled to credit of the amount in the Personal Ledger Account and the claim could not be rejected as time-barred under the refund procedure.

Final Conclusion: Relief was granted to the assessee by setting aside the rejection of the claim and directing consequential benefit.

Ratio Decidendi: Money paid as a provisional deposit against an anticipated clearance, where the clearance does not materialise and final assessment is nil, must be restored by credit and is not to be treated as a refund claim subject to limitation.

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