NOIDA INDUSTRIAL BELTINGS Vs. CCE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant claimed exemption under Notification No. 8/99 dated 28.2.99. That exemption is for small scale manufacturers, and one requirement under that Notification is that aggregate value of clearances for home consumption should not exceed Rs. 3 crores. The dispute that arises in this appeal is whether the value of goods cleared by the appellant under another exemption Notification (No. 5/99 -CE) was required to be excluded while computing the aggregate value of clearances for the purpose of exemption under Notification 8/99. Serial No. 70 under General Exemption No. 66 is the relevant entry for the purposes of Notification No. 5/99. The terms of the exemption under that serial No. are as under:

(2.) IT is clear from a perusal of (a) and (b) under serial No. 70 that that exemption is based on the value of clearances. The issue as to whether the clearances under that entry are to be included or not for the purpose of determining aggregate value of clearances is required to be examined in terms of para 3 of Notification No. 8/99. Relevant portion of that paragraph is reproduced below:

(3.) A perusal of the above provision would show that clearances, under "an exemption based on quantity or value of clearances" cannot be excluded. We have already noted that the exemption under Sl. No. 70 of Notification No. 5/99 is "based on the value of clearances". That being the legal position, the lower authorities were right in including the clearances under exemption Notification No. 5/99 also while computing the aggregate value of clearances.