1983 (2) TMI 308

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....ation No. 213/63-Central Excises, as amended by notification No. 29/67-C.E. To facilitate a proper understanding of the issues involved, we reproduce below this notification, together with its amendment:- Notification No. 213/63-C.E., as amended by notification No. 29/67-C.E. "In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-rule (1) of Rule 8 of the Central Excise Rules, 1944, the Central Government hereby exempts pipes and tubes of copper alloys, falling under sub-item (3) of Item No. 26A of the First Schedule to Central Excises and Salt Act 1944 (1 of 1944) in the manufacture of which duty paid copper or copper alloy in any crude form or manufactures thereof are used, from so much of the duty of excise leviable thereon, as is equivalent to t....

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....y became payable to them at the revised rate of ₹ 4,000/- per M.T. with effect from 1-8-1974. To be precise the material period of dispute can be split up into two parts as under :- 1st Period-13-8-1974 to 11-11-1974. During this period, set-off was granted to them initially at the old rate of ₹ 1500/- per M.T. Later, however", the Assistant Collector granted them refund on 17-7-1976 for the balance set-off at the rate of ₹ 2500/- per M.T. But soon this was followed by a notice served on them on 26-10-1976 asking them to show cause why the amount of refund paid to them be not recovered. IInd Period-18-11-1974 to 31-1-1975 During this period set-off was granted to the appellants at the enhanced rate of ₹ 4000....

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....otice for withdrawing that set-off, that after having approved the classification list, the Assistant Collector could not review his own order by confirming demand for recovery and that if at all there was any doubt about interpretation, the benefit ,of the same ought to be given to the appellants. 5.  On behalf of the Department, Shri N.V. Raghavan Iyer stated that "duty payable" in the context of market purchases of crude copper means duty that was payable on the date of purchase, that this was the only reasonable meaning and if it became necessary to depart from the rules of grammar to get at a reasonable meaning, it could be done so, that what happened on 6-8-1977 was that the old Rule 10 was modified, that such modification did n....

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....int of dispute in respect of the second paragraph, is : duty payable on which date - whether on the date of purchase of crude copper from the market, as interpreted by the Department, or on the date of grant of set off in terms of the notification, as urged by the appellants. In our view, the answer to this question has to be sought in the context of the time at which the notification has to be applied. According to the Central Excise law, the occasion to apply the exemption notification is the time when excisable goods are sought to be cleared and, therefore, duty is to be assessed and paid thereon. In the case under consideration before us, the occasion to apply notification No. 213/63-C.E. would also arise only when copper pipes and tube....