Concessional excise duty for power-driven pumps primarily...

Concessional excise duty for power-driven pumps primarily designed to handle water requires strict satisfaction of the exemption conditions. "Water", undefined in the tariff, is understood in common and commercial parlance as clean water, excluding sewage and drainage water. Sewage and drainage pumps were therefore ineligible where their design and manufacturing differed from water-handling pumps; differential duty with applicable interest remained payable. An unimplemented audit objection did not create res judicata, and distinct tax periods have separate causes of action. Penalty for wrongful availment was set aside because the circumstances did not establish grounds warranting its imposition.