Exemption for hot re-rolled goods depends on the notification's text; restrictions from other levy schemes cannot be read in.

Notification No. 50/97-C.E., as amended, granted exemption to hot re-rolled goods manufactured before 1-9-1997 and cleared on or after that date from an induction furnace unit or hot re-rolling mill. The notification was issued under Section 5A(1) of the Central Excise Act, 1944, and its text did not confine the benefit to units covered by Section 3A or the compounded levy scheme. A restriction drawn from other capacity-based levy notifications could not be read into the exemption. On the stated facts, goods manufactured before the cut-off date and cleared thereafter from a hot re-rolling mill qualified for the exemption, and the duty demand and penalty were not sustainable.

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Issues: Whether hot re-rolled products manufactured in a unit outside the compounded levy scheme were eligible for the benefit of Notification No. 50/97-C.E., as amended, for goods manufactured before 1-9-1997 and cleared on or after that date.

Analysis: The exemption notification was issued under Section 5A(1) of the Central Excise Act, 1944 and its proviso restricted the concession to goods manufactured or produced before the specified date and cleared on or after that date from an induction furnace unit or a hot re-rolling mill. The text of the notification did not incorporate any condition limiting its operation only to units covered by Section 3A or the compounded levy scheme. The demand was founded on importing such a limitation from the other notifications governing capacity-based levy, but no such restriction appeared in the exemption notification itself. An exemption provision must be construed strictly according to its language, and a restriction not found in the text cannot be read into it. Since the appellants satisfied the stated conditions of manufacture before the cut-off date and clearance thereafter from a hot re-rolling mill, denial of the exemption was unjustified.

Conclusion: The appellants were entitled to the exemption under Notification No. 50/97-C.E., as amended, and the duty demand and penalty could not be sustained.

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