Exemption eligibility under Notification No. 1/93 turns on preceding-year clearances, not current-year turnover alone.

Eligibility for exemption under Notification No. 1/93, as amended, depended on the aggregate value of clearances in the preceding financial year, not on clearances made in the current year. The lower appellate authority relied on current year clearances crossing the monetary limit but recorded no finding that the preceding year threshold had been exceeded. In the absence of that required statutory finding, the notification condition was not shown to be violated and the exemption could not be denied on the basis of current year turnover alone. The appellants were therefore entitled to the exemption benefit.

---

---

Issues: Whether the benefit of Notification No. 1/93, as amended, was unavailable to the appellants because the clearances during the current financial year had crossed the monetary limit, despite no finding that the clearances in the preceding financial year exceeded the prescribed threshold.

Analysis: The amended notification made eligibility dependent on the aggregate value of clearances in the preceding financial year. The lower appellate authority proceeded on the basis that the current year clearances had crossed the limit, but did not record any finding that the appellants' clearances in the preceding financial year exceeded Rs. 200 lakhs. The condition in the notification was therefore not shown to have been violated. Current financial year clearances, by themselves, did not disentitle the appellants from the benefit of the notification.

Conclusion: The appellants were entitled to the benefit of Notification No. 1/93, and the denial of exemption was unsustainable.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded and the exemption benefit was restored in favour of the appellants.

Ratio Decidendi: Eligibility under an exemption notification tied to the preceding financial year must be determined only on the basis of the prescribed turnover in that preceding year, and current year clearances cannot be used to defeat the exemption absent the required statutory finding.

---