TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (11) TMI 21
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....ndent herein (R1/writ petitioner). 2. R1 is engaged in the business of aquaculture and manages 19 hatcheries and farms where it processes prawns for export. It imports raw materials including feed for the prawns. A 100% Export Oriented Unit (EOU) had been set up pursuant to the letter of intent issued by the Ministry of Industry dated 06.09.1988 and approval dated 04.03.1992. 3. The 100% EOU was granted approval for the manufacture of processed prawns from the integrated farm including hatchery, feed mill and processing unit subject to certain conditions, including that the prawns processed shall be exported. A factory was set up in Nellore and the writ petitioner commenced production in June/July of 1993. 4. Notification 13 of 198....
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....s including raw materials for feed and feed for aquaculture units. Clause (9) of the aforesaid notification reads thus: '(9) (i) the Notification No.188-Customs/93, dated the 27th December, 1993, of the government of India in the Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue is hereby rescinded. (ii)Notwithstanding such rescission, anything done or action taken under the notification so rescinded shall be deemed to have been done or taken under the corresponding provisions of this notification.' 8. The goods in respect of which the exemption was restored are as follows and feed and Raw materials are found in serial numbers (8) and (9) below: THE TABLE Sl. No. Description of Goods 1. Capital Goods inc....
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....pecial cooking medium, bread crumbs/powder. Packaging materials all sorts. 9. The writ petitioner was thus enjoying the exemption in respect of feed and raw materials from 09.2.1981 onwards which exemption, all parties believed, stood interrupted for a period of 342 days between 27.12.1993 and 08.12.1994 by virtue of the rescinding of the exemption for aquaculture farms under notification dated 27.12.1993. The imports made by the petitioner during the period of 342 days were released on the strength of a bond executed along with bank guarantees for 20% of the import value. 10. As the Customs Department believed that the exemption did not operate not for the period between 27.12.1993 and 08.12.1994, it sought to invoke the bank guar....
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....and export of farm products by 100% EOU In exercise of the powers ... ... (5) notwithstanding anything contained in this notification the exemption contained herewith shall also apply to those goods which on importation into India are used for the purposes of production of aquaculture products within hundred per cent Export-Oriented Undertakings approved by the said Board of Approvals for hundred per cent Export-Oriented Undertakings and such products (including rejects, waste and scrap material arising in the course of production) even if not exported out of India, are allowed to be sold in India, under and in accordance with the Export and Import Policy, April, 1992 - March 1997, published under the Ministry of ....
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....er dated 30.06.2008 noticing, and rightly, that Notification No. 188/1993 had maintained the grant of exemption during the entirety of the interregnum to prawn feed and raw materials. The relevant portion of the impugned order is extracted below: '11. The contention raised by the learned counsel is well-founded. Even though in the counter affidavit dated 21.10.2002 filed by the respondents, it is stated that Notification No.196 of 1994 is not retrospective, that argument is not correct because the purpose of the said notification is to rescind the 1993 Notification. Even otherwise, paragraph 5 of the 1994 Notification provides for a non-obstante clause by which the raw materials are liable for exemption by the said Notification....
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....t of amendments of Rules, Regulations, Notifications or Orders. Section 159A reads as follows: '159A. [Effect of amendments, etc. of rules, regulations, notifications or orders. Where any rule, regulation, notification or order made or issued under this Act or any notification or order issued under such rule or regulation, is amended, repealed, superseded or rescinded, then, unless a different intention appears, such amendment, repeal, supersession or rescinding shall not- (a) revive anything not in force or existing at the time at which the amendment, repeal, supersession or rescinding takes effect; or (b) affect the previous operation of any rule, regulation, notification or order so amended, repeal....