Statutory levy treated as tax or impost and excluded from excise assessable value under valuation rules.

Administrative charges levied under the U.P. Sheera Niyantran Adhiniyam, 1964 were treated as a statutory tax or impost, not as part of assessable value for excise purposes. Applying Section 4(4)(d)(ii) of the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944, and the broad constitutional understanding of "taxation" under Article 366(28), the charge was held to fall within the exclusion for taxes from assessable value. The administrative charges were therefore not includible, and the exclusion from valuation was upheld in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether administrative charges levied under the U.P. Sheera Niyantran Adhiniyam, 1964 were includible in the assessable value for excise duty under Section 4(4)(d)(ii) of the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944.

Analysis: The levy was imposed under a State statute and was examined in the light of the statutory exclusion for duty of excise, sales tax, and other taxes from assessable value. Relying on the width of the expression "taxation" in Article 366(28) of the Constitution of India, and the settled understanding that "tax" and "impost" may include statutory levies and charges collected under legal authority, the charge was treated as a tax or impost rather than a component of assessable value.

Conclusion: The administrative charges were not includible in the assessable value under Section 4(4)(d)(ii) of the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944, and the conclusion was in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The appeal failed because the impugned order excluding the administrative charges from assessable value was upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory levy imposed under a State enactment, when falling within the broad constitutional meaning of tax or impost, is excluded from assessable value if the governing excise valuation provision expressly excludes other taxes.

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