Conditional exemption notifications cannot override statutory valuation where their own conditions are not satisfied under excise law.

A conditional exemption notification under Central Excise law cannot be applied mechanically unless its stated conditions are satisfied, including claiming exemption for all covered medicines and foregoing other discounts. The text distinguishes between a statutorily fixed wholesale price and the retail price referred to in the notification, noting that Section 4 valuation operates only within its own statutory scheme. On the facts described, the assessee could not be forced to adopt notification-based valuation in place of assessable value under Section 4(1)(a), and the valuation position accepted by the lower authority remained undisturbed.

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Issues: Whether the assessee could be compelled to adopt valuation under Notification No. 245/83 dated 13-9-1983 instead of the assessable value under clause (a) of sub-section (1) of Section 4; and whether the notification could be denied on the basis of the conditions attached to it.

Analysis: The notification granted exemption only subject to specified conditions, including that exemption had to be claimed in respect of all medicines cleared by the assessee which were covered by the Drugs (Price Control) Order, 1987, and that no other discount could be claimed as deduction. The valuation under the proviso to Section 4 applied only where a statutory wholesale price was fixed. The distinction between a statutorily fixed wholesale price and the retail price referred to in the notification was material, and the attempted substitution of a notional wholesale price from the retail price did not fit the statutory scheme.

Conclusion: The assessee could not be compelled to adopt the notification-based valuation on the facts as shown, and the appeal against the Collector (Appeals) order was not entitled to succeed.

Final Conclusion: The order allowing the assessee's valuation position was left undisturbed, and the departmental appeal failed.

Ratio Decidendi: A conditional exemption notification cannot be mechanically imposed where its own conditions are not shown to be satisfied, and Section 4 applies only according to its statutory scheme for determining assessable value.

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