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TMI Blog1998 (11) TMI 243X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... that the issue relates to the interpretation of exemption Notification No. 108/95. The said exemption Notification provided for total exemption from excise duty on all goods falling under the Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 when such goods are supplied to the United Nations or an international organisation for their official use or supplied to the projects financed by the United Nations or an international organisation and approved by the Government of India. The proviso to the said notification reads as under :- Provided that before clearance of the said goods, the manufacturer produces before the Assistant Collector of Central Excise having jurisdiction over his factory a certificate from the United Nations or an intern ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... project being approved by the Government of India. They further claimed that they were entitled to the benefit of Notification No. 108/95. The Assistant Commissioner, after discussing the arguments and scope of the exemption Notification, held that the exemption under Notification No. 108/95 is to be allowed only on production of the requisite certificate from the United Nations or an international organisation before clearance of the said goods. He observed that the World Bank itself by its letter dated 4-2-1997 addressed to RITES had expressed their inability to issue such a certificate. Since a notification has to be construed strictly in terms of the wordings therein, the Assistant Collector held that in the absence of the certificate f ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... taken manufacturing of the medicines and supply them for a purpose envisaged under the notification. He, therefore, submitted that the denial of the benefit of the notification by way of duty exemption merely for the reason that a certificate from the United Nations or an international organisation had not been produced, should not come in the way of conferring the benefit envisaged under the notification. Learned counsel also submitted that the Commissioner (Appeals) had in effect agreed with the appellant s submission that the requirement of producing a certificate from the United Nations or an international organisation had been complied with substantially in view of the two letters referred to above sent by the World Bank to RITES allow ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n effect accepted their submission that the two letters issued by the World Bank to RITES giving approval to their tender and confirming the same had to be deemed to be a certificate from the World Bank, the learned SDR submitted that the Commissioner (Appeals) had dealt with these two letters only in the context of the two grounds of appeal taken before the Commissioner (Appeals) and this cannot be deemed to be an acceptance of the appellants contention that the Commissioner (Appeals) had given any finding in favour of the appellants that the two letters from the World Bank can be deemed to be a certificate as envisaged in the proviso to the Notification. He relied on two judgments of the Supreme Court, namely, Mihir Textiles Ltd. v. Coll ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a certificate of the type requested for by RITES in the context of the exemption notification. The further two conditions in the proviso to the said notification, namely, that the goods are to be supplied to a project financed by the United Nations or an international organisation and that the project has been duly approved by the Government of India cannot be taken as a substitute for the condition of obtaining a certificate from the United Nations or an international organisation as envisaged in the proviso. During the submissions, the learned counsel had shown us a copy of a further Notification No. 33/98, dated 13th October, 1998 which had amended Notification No. 108/95 and had now laid down the condition of the certificate being issue ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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