Exemption for yellow phosphorus upheld where earlier Tribunal rulings treated it as the same commodity as white phosphorus.

Yellow phosphorus cleared under Chapter X for pesticide manufacture was treated as the same commodity as white phosphorus, because the Tribunal had earlier found the difference to be only a matter of impurities. On that basis, the benefit of Notification No. 43/88 had already been extended to the product in the assessee's favour, and later Tribunal orders had followed that view. In the absence of any reason to depart from those earlier rulings, the exemption remained admissible and the challenge to its denial failed.

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Issues: Whether yellow phosphorus cleared under Chapter X procedure for manufacture of pesticides was entitled to exemption under Notification No. 43/88 dated 1-3-1988.

Analysis: The Tribunal found that in the assessee's own earlier cases it had already been held that yellow phosphorus and white phosphorus are one and the same, yellow phosphorus being so described because of impurities. On that basis, the benefit of Notification No. 43/88 had already been extended to the same product in the assessee's favour, and the same view had been followed in subsequent orders. In the absence of any warrant to depart from those decisions, the impugned order called for no interference.

Conclusion: The exemption was held admissible and the appeal was rejected.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the product in question has already been treated in earlier binding or followed Tribunal orders as the same commodity covered by the exemption notification, the exemption cannot be denied merely because it is not separately enumerated by name.

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