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TMI Blog1975 (8) TMI 45X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d excise duty, as claimed by it. Had there been disputes on facts, we would have hesitated to reassess the findings but as the record stands, the sole question is one of construction. 3. If we may anticipate our ultimate conclusion even at the opening stage, this appeal deserves to be allowed as a matter of law but what is more significant for society are three unhappy features which we feel confident, the State will seriously consider. They are (a) that good government involves not only diligent collection of taxes, but also ready refunds of excess levies, (b) that simplicity or easy comprehensibility in drafting legislation, including rules and notifications affecting the laity, is an art found absent, although not difficult to accomplish, given a fresh approach to use of statutory language, and (c) that a fair construction - not always one adverse to the assessee - is permissible and proper on the part of government and the taxing officers when enforcing fiscal legislation. 4. The appellant manufactures aluminium plates, sheets, circles, strips and foils which are the end-products of its composite factory but as intermediate products it also turns and the like which get consum ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f the duty leviable thereon as in excess of Rs. 200.00 per metric tonne'. 6. There was avoidable complication experienced in the enforcement of the two-tier system of duty and on the representation of the concerned composite manufacturers, the Government of India switched over to a single point levy at the ultimate stage of the manufacture and in that behalf issued an exemption notification on the meaning of which the parties have joined issue before us. This notification reads thus : "The Central Government exempts the following aluminium manufactures, namely, plates, sheets, circles, strips and foils in any form or size, in the manufacture of which aluminium in any crude form including ingots, bars, blocks, stabs, billets, shots and pellets made out of old aluminium scrap or scrap obtained from the virgin metal on which the appropriate excise duty has been paid from so much of the duty leviable thereon as is in excess of Rs. 200.00 per metric tonne." (Notification No. 66/60 dated 20-4-1960) Notwithstanding the stilted style of the notification, it is, to our mind, clear that what the Central Government intended and effected by this notification was to fix the rate of levy at R ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rate of Rs. 200/- per MT 1.0490 MT of sheets and strips was eligible to be cleared free of duty being for purposes of electrolysis which was duty-free. By simple arithmetic worked out by the Collector of Central Excise and forwarded to the Central Government (Annexure E), the balance of stock of finished goods manufactured out of duty-paid slabs as on April 25, 1960 was 93.5099 MT. This quantity was actually cleared on payment of duty at the rate of Rs. 500/- per MT. But having been made out of duty-paid slabs the exemption notification applied and only Rs. 200/- per MT was payable. Thus the excess collected i.e. Rs. 300/- per MT was refundable. So obvious. And yet it took an appeal to this Court (C.A. No. 635 of 1964) and a direction for reconsideration before the Central Government would reluctantly consent to refund as per order dated 21-8-1967. This is no surviving dispute on this matter. 9. Shri A.K. Sen, appearing for the appellant, contended that much more by way of excess exaction had been made whose return he claimed in this appeal. He relied on the figures furnished by the Collector of Central Excise in Annexure E to make good his case. For, according to that report, `du ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ed for manufacture of sheets etc., should the final product be exigible to tax at Rs. 500/- per MT? Would it not virtually mean that merely because a wee bit of non-duty paid `crude' were mixed the party is penalised by payment of Rs. 800/- per MT? An odd and unreasonable result! Shri Sanghi for the respondent rightly asked whether a manufacturer who used 1 per cent duty-paid and 99 per cent non-duty paid slabs in producing sheets can get way with it from liability for duty at the rate of Rupees 500/-? No, not at all. Such an assessee will get the benefit of the concessional rate (shall we call it rebate?) only to the extent of the 1 per cent and will be subject to full payment of Rs. 500/- for the rest. If the mathematical facts are undisputed, of course, had there been failure the factual conclusion is irrefutable on the part of the assessee to keep the statutory stock registers or otherwise his figures were suspicious the Collector of Excise could and would, ordinarily without fear of judicial interference, work out how much of the raw material had borne duty already. Here the facts are free from dispute and the respondent does not even hint at the possibility of a part of the g ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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