TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1983 (10) TMI 247
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....oxide; three factories started production and clearance before 1-4-1973, the fourth after 1-4-1973. Under Notification 198/76-C.E. the Assistant Collector fixed the base clearance for all the 4 factories at 2,169,606,076 kg., with reference to clauses (b) and (c) of sub-paragraph 2(2) of the notification. Of the 2,169,606.076 kg., 584,980.766 kg. are accounted for by the fourth factory (which started clearances after 1-4-1973. We shall here refer to this factory as the fourth factory) South India Carbonic Gas claimed concessional duty for the fourth factory on carbon dioxide cleared from it over the 548,980.766 kg. which was reached on 20-11-1977. The Assistant Collector held that Notification 198/76-C.E. had no provision for this and that ....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....o hear the appeal and called upon the counsel for the Department to present his case. Mr. A.K. Jain, learned Counsel for the department made arguments on behalf of the Department. 4. He argued that the clubbing by the Assistant Collector was not incorrect because the assessment had to have one base clearance which must be calculated by taking clearances by or on behalf of one manufacturer from one or more factories. From the wording of Notification 198/76-C.E. it is clear that the benefit is to a manufacturer (and not to a factory) who has one or more factories. It is evident that there must be one base clearance if there is one manufacturer. He said that scheme of the notification requires what the Assistant Collector did and the a....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....e been the result of confusion on the part of the two sides : this notification merely changes the formula for reckoning the base clearance of factories that produced after 1-10-1972 but cleared before 1-4-1973. What we have to decide is whether the Assistant Collector was correct in adding the base clearances of the fourth factory to the base clearance of the first three factories to arrive at a common base clearance of the four factories. 6. The South India Carbonic Gas say that by doing so, the Assistant Collector has changed the base period of the fourth factory from 1973-1974, 1974-1975, 1975-1976 to 1973-1974, the base period for the first three factories. The appellants say there is no authority for this. A careful reading No....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....ee factories where base clearances may be the different by reason of the fact that the sub-paragraph specifies 3 categories of factories in clause (a) (b) and (c) in each of which can fall one or more factories. Indeed amending Notification 271/76-C.E. envisages fixation of a common base clearance for more than one factories in such manner that the highest clearance for all factories, in any financial year of the base period is to be taken as the base clearance. There seems to be no other meaning in dividing factories according to the date on which they first cleared the specified goods and in elaborating the method of determining the base clearance for each category. Thus, for different categories of factories, different base clearances ha....