Revised price list lowering excise value operates on approval, unless provisional assessment is validly invoked.

A revised price list that lowers the assessable value of excisable goods ordinarily operates only from the date of approval under Rule 173C of the Central Excise Rules, 1944, not from the date of filing. Where the assessee has validly invoked the provisional assessment mechanism under Rule 9B read with Rule 173C(5) and (6), the approval may relate back to the date of such invocation. The operative date therefore depends on whether provisional assessment was in fact invoked; if it was not, the approval date governs.

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Issues: (i) Whether a revised price list lowering the value of excisable goods takes effect from the date of filing or only from the date of approval; (ii) whether the assessee can claim an earlier effective date where the procedure for provisional assessment is invoked under the rules.

Issue (i): Whether a revised price list lowering the value of excisable goods takes effect from the date of filing or only from the date of approval.

Analysis: Under Rule 173C(1) of the Central Excise Rules, 1944, the normal rule is that a price list, once approved, may operate from the date of filing. However, where a fresh or amended price list has the effect of lowering the existing value of the goods, Rule 173C(2) requires prior approval of the proper officer. Until such approval is granted, goods cannot ordinarily be cleared on the basis of the lower price. The statutory scheme therefore makes the approval date the operative date in such cases, unlike the ordinary price-list situation.

Conclusion: The revised price list lowering the value of goods ordinarily takes effect only from the date of approval, not from the date of filing.

Issue (ii): Whether the assessee can claim an earlier effective date where the procedure for provisional assessment is invoked under the rules.

Analysis: The rules carve out an exception where the assessee is allowed to avail the provisional assessment procedure under Rule 9B of the Central Excise Rules, 1944, read with Rule 173C(5) and Rule 173C(6). In that event, the approval may relate back to the date on which the provisional procedure was invoked. The materials before the Tribunal did not establish whether that procedure had in fact been invoked, so the factual position required verification by the Assistant Collector.

Conclusion: If provisional assessment under the relevant rules had been invoked, the revised price list could take effect from that date; otherwise, the approval date would govern.

Final Conclusion: The departmental appeal succeeded to the extent that the orders below were set aside and the matter was remitted for fresh decision on the limited question whether the provisional-assessment procedure had been invoked.

Ratio Decidendi: A revised price list that lowers the assessable value of excisable goods becomes operative only on approval, unless the assessee has validly been permitted to proceed under the provisional-assessment mechanism, in which case the effective date depends on that invocation.

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