Case Law Details
Ahinsha Chemicals Ltd Vs Union of India (Gauhati High Court)
In the instant case, it is the case of the petitioner that the requirement of requesting for fixation of a special rate in respect of the value addition to the manufactured goods had arisen only after the final judgment of the Supreme Court on 22.04.2020, inasmuch, as long as the matter was pending before the Supreme Court and the interim order dated 07.12.2015 was in operation requiring a refund of 50% of the amount involved, no occasion had arisen for the assessee to claim for the fixation of a special rate in respect of the value addition to the manufactured goods. The dominant purpose of the two notifications i.e. amended notification No.32/99-CE dated 18.07.1999 and the notification No. 31/2008-CE dated 10.06.2008 is the bestowing of a legal right to the assessee to opt for the fixation of a special rate in respect of the value addition to a manufactured goods. The requirement that such applications are to be made not later than 30th day of September of the given financial year is a provision for streamlining the procedure for making such application and to avoid the situation where the process of making such applications would be a never ending matter.
Without going into the aspect whether the requirement to submit such application within 30th September of the given financial year is a mandatory requirement or a directory requirement, what we take note of is that such a provision has been incorporated to streamline the process for submission of the application seeking for the fixation of a special rate to the value addition to manufactured goods.
We have to take note of that as long as there was a judgment of the Division Bench in WA No.243/2009 in favour of the petitioner interfering with the modification for exemption of excise duty and the matter thereafter was pending before the Supreme Court on an appeal with an interim order dated 07.12.2015 requiring a refund of the 50% of the amount of excise duty, the occasion had not arisen for the assessee to go further and seek for a fixation of a special rate in respect of the value addition to the manufactured goods and even if there would have been a determination of such special rate, the same would have remained ineffective and un-implementable till the Supreme Court had finally decided the issue which was done as per the judgment dated 22.04.2020 in Civil Appeal No.2256-2263 of 2020, and further the relevance of such determination would again depend on the outcome of the appeal that was pending before the Supreme Court. We have taken note of that immediately after the judgment dated 22.04.2020 in Civil Appeal No.2256-2263 of 2020, when the occasion had again arisen for the petitioner assessee to seek for fixation of a special rate in respect of the value addition to the manufactured goods for the purpose of payment of the excise duty, the application for such request was made within a period of five month, which is on 28.09.2020. From such point of view, it cannot be wholly said that the petitioner would now be prevented from claiming their legal right for fixation of a special rate to the value addition to the manufactured goods merely because such application was not made within 30th September of that given financial year to which the claim for fixation of the said rate pertains to.
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