Compounding amount under Central Excise Act prescribes fixed or percentage-based settlement scales tied to duty or credit breaches. Compounding under the Central Excise Act, 1944 prescribes monetary settlements based on offence category: certain procedural contraventions attract fixed-sum compounding with escalation for repeat offences, while offences involving duty evasion, wrongful removal, dealing in confiscable goods, and improper CENVAT credit are compounded as percentages of duty evaded or credit misused, subject to specified minimums and maximums.