Exemption claims needing declaration and approval are treated as made on declaration date, preserving refund limitation.

Where an exemption notification required a base-year declaration and departmental approval before the benefit could be taken, the refund or exemption claim was treated as made when the declaration was submitted for approval, and limitation ran only up to that date. On that basis, the refund claim was held to be within time under Rule 11 of the Central Excise Rules, 1944. The objection that the assessee had not disputed the classification list was also rejected, because the prescribed declaration-and-approval procedure, rather than the classification list, governed availment of the exemption. The refund claim was therefore maintainable and not barred by limitation.

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Issues: (i) Whether the refund claim arising under the exemption notification was barred by limitation under Rule 11 of the Central Excise Rules, 1944; (ii) Whether the refund was inadmissible because the assessee had not disputed the classification list.

Issue (i): Whether the refund claim arising under the exemption notification was barred by limitation under Rule 11 of the Central Excise Rules, 1944.

Analysis: The notification required the assessee to file a base-year declaration and obtain approval before availing the exemption. The Department itself introduced the procedural mechanism later, and the assessee could not independently claim the benefit without following that procedure. On the Tribunal's earlier view in similar matters, the date on which the declaration was submitted for approval was treated as the date on which the exemption claim was effectively made, with limitation ceasing to run from that date.

Conclusion: The refund claim was within time and was not barred by limitation.

Issue (ii): Whether the refund was inadmissible because the assessee had not disputed the classification list.

Analysis: The notification became effective before the departmental procedure for its implementation was prescribed. In such a scheme, prior approval could not practically be secured through the classification list itself, and the assessee had to follow the prescribed declaration-and-approval route. Since that route was followed and the claim was lodged within limitation, the absence of a dispute to the classification list did not defeat the refund claim.

Conclusion: The objection based on the classification list was rejected.

Final Conclusion: The refund claim was held to be maintainable and within limitation, and the Department's challenge to the refund failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an exemption scheme requires a declaration and departmental approval as a condition for availing the benefit, the refund or exemption claim is treated as made when the declaration is submitted for approval, and limitation under the refund provision runs only up to that date.

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