Amended clearance criterion under Notification No. 175/86 applies prospectively, excluding branded goods cleared on duty payment.

The amended eligibility criterion under Notification No. 175/86, as inserted by Notification No. 174/89, had to be applied prospectively when computing aggregate clearances for the next claim period. Because the benefit was sought for clearances to be made after the amendment, no issue of retrospective operation arose. The value of branded goods cleared on payment of duty was therefore required to be excluded while reckoning aggregate value of clearances for eligibility under the notification.

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Issues: Whether the amended eligibility criterion under Notification No. 174/89, inserted in Notification No. 175/86, had to be applied for computing the aggregate value of clearances by excluding the value of branded goods cleared on payment of duty.

Analysis: The amended proviso to paragraph 3 of Notification No. 175/86 governed the computation of aggregate clearances for the previous financial year, and the benefit claimed after the amendment was for clearances to be made thereafter. Once the eligibility criterion was changed by the amending notification, the amended criterion had to be applied to the computation relevant for the subsequent claim. The question of retrospective operation did not arise because the claim was not for past clearances but for eligibility to be determined prospectively on the basis of the revised formula.

Conclusion: The amended criterion was applicable and the value of branded goods cleared on payment of duty had to be excluded while reckoning the aggregate value of clearances for eligibility under Notification No. 175/86.

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