https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=350776 Education Cess and Higher Education Cess, being surcharges calculated on excise duty, are refundable where an exemption fully relieves the underlying excise duty. Complete excise-duty exemption operates through the prescribed refund mechanism after CENVAT credit adjustment, and no cess remains payable when the parent duty is nil or fully exempt. Departmental circulars support this treatment. Where competing interpretations arise, the interpretation favourable to the assessee applies. The cess partakes the character of the underlying excise duty and cannot be retained after full exemption of that duty. en-us Fri, 10 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0530 Sat, 30 Dec 2017 15:05:00 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=350776 Education Cess and Higher Education Cess, being surcharges calculated on excise duty, are refundable where an exemption fully relieves the underlying excise duty. Complete excise-duty exemption operates through the prescribed refund mechanism after CENVAT credit adjustment, and no cess remains payable when the parent duty is nil or fully exempt. Departmental circulars support this treatment. Where competing interpretations arise, the interpretation favourable to the assessee applies. The cess partakes the character of the underlying excise duty and cannot be retained after full exemption of that duty. Case-Laws Central Excise Fri, 10 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=350776