Single-option exemption election bars mid-year switch from tariff rate to concessional excise benefit.

An exemption notification allowing a concessional excise rate was treated as permitting only one option in a financial year. An assessee who paid duty at the tariff rate at the start of the year, after having filed the required declarations and previously availed the benefit, was held to have made a conscious election rather than a mistaken payment. The later attempt to switch to the concessional regime for the same year was therefore not permitted, and the tariff-rate duty position was sustained.

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Issues: Whether an assessee who had paid duty at the tariff rate at the start of the financial year could later opt to avail the concessional benefit under Notification No. 1/93-C.E. for the same year, and whether such earlier payment could be treated as a mere mistake.

Analysis: The notification was construed as conferring only one option in a financial year. The assessee had filed declarations under the excise rules and had earlier been availing the notification benefit, which indicated an exercise of option rather than an accidental or mistaken payment of duty at the tariff rate. In light of the earlier tribunal view on the same notification and the declarations contemplated by the relevant excise rules, the later attempt to shift to the concessional regime for the same year was not able.

Conclusion: The assessee was not entitled to claim the concessional rate after having opted for the tariff rate at the commencement of the financial year. The demand was sustained and the appeal failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an exemption notification permits an option only once in a financial year, the assessee cannot switch mid-year from the tariff rate to the concessional rate after having manifested the original choice through duty payment and statutory declarations.

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