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TMI Blog1980 (2) TMI 80X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ling duty at 40% ad valorem was also levied on these imports. It appears, by a Notification No. 38/73, Central Excise, dated 1st March, 1973, as subsequently amended by Notification No. 174/73, Central Excise, dated 8th September, 1973, the Central Government exempted from the whole of the duty of excise leviable on acrylic sheets manufactured in India, subject to the following condition, viz., that they are made of (1) artificial resins or plastic material in any form falling under Item 1 of Item 15(A) on which the appropriate duty of excise or the additional duty under Sec. 2-A of the Indian Tariff Act, 1934 (32 of 1934) as the case may be, has already been paid; and/or (2) scrap or plastics, and/or (3) methyl methacrylate monomer. When t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... fication. It is true that acrylic sheets in India are not manufactured by a process other than those 3 enumerated in the notification. However, technically, manufacture of acrylic sheets from materials outside the enumerated 3 sources is a feasible thing. Whether such technical feasibility is also a commercially viable proposal I do not know. As Collector of Customs, I could give interpretation only to statutory notifications. As notification presently stands, it will have to be deemed a conditional notification which does not exempt acrylic sheets in all circumstances but on]y in certain specified circumstances. The benefit of such conditional exemptions cannot be extended for purposes of c.v. duty to imported materials as per statutory pr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e section, as the levy was not in pursuance of any other Central Government notification. It may be seen from this provision that in order to attract the liability for payment of countervailing duty, an excise duty shall be leviable on a like article, if produced or manufactured in India. If no excise duty was payable on a like article if produced or manufactured in India, no countervailing duty also would be payable. The Notification, which I have already referred to, has exempted acrylic sheets if manufactured in India from the whole of the duty of excise leviable thereon, subject-only to the condition that they are manufactured out of the material referred to in the condition. It was the case of the petitioner that acrylic sheets importe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ustoms laboratory. Since at that time, the question as to the liability of the countervailing duty did not arise for consideration, probably the Department did not test them in their laboratory. But what is more relevant is, that in spite of the petitioner producing the certificates from the various manufacturers abroad and his assertion in the review petition, the Collector neither disputed the certificates nor gave any finding that the acrylic sheets imported by the petitioner were not made from methyl methacrylate monomer. But the Collector seems to have approached the question from the possibility of acrylic sheets being manufactured in India from out of some other material which is not referred to in the notification, and those acrylic ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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