Law:

Section:

JUDGMENT MUHAMMAD SAIR ALI, J.-The appellant, a public limited company engaged in manufacture and production of sugar, preferred a claim of refund of Central Excise Duty on the basis of the concession given through S.R.O. 455(I)/1996, dated 13-6-1996. That S.R.0 contemplated clearance of sugar at a rate of Rs. 1.58 per kg. Which was in excess of average production of canesugar in the A preceding three financial years provided "that the factory operated for a period not less than 150 working days for crushing". The respondent-Department refused the claim of refund with respect to the excess sugar alleged to have been produced during the period involved on the ground that their factory had not operated for 150 days. 2. The Order-in-Original refusing the claim of refund was unsuccessfully agitated before the Tribunal. The learned Members of the Tribunal refused to accept the contention of the appellant that the factory operated for 167 days in the three preceding years i.e. 1994-95, 1995-96 and 1996-97. They also disagreed with the interpretation of the appellant of the words and phrase "crushing season" as contained in the Sugar Cane Act, 1934. The appellant had alleged that the closures taking place during crushing season were not to be excluded for working out number of crushing days in a financial year. 3. The operative part of the order of the Tribunal reads as under: "We have heard contentions of both the sides and perused the appeal file available before us. The concessionary S.R.O. 455(I)/96, dated 13-6-1996 allowed excess sugar produced in a financial year to be cleared @ Rs.1.58 per k.g. Of the excess average production of sugarcane in a factory in the preceding three financial years provided "that the factory operated for a period not less than 150 working days from crushing". In a sugar factory, the word "crushing" means crushing of sugarcane and there can be no other meaning of this word with reference to a sugar factory. The word "factory operated" is to be read with the word "for crushing". The wording…

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/digixyei/sldsystempk.com/view/master-layout/view_case.php on line 492