ORDER
S. Duggal, Member (J)
1. In this appeal, filed by the Collector of Central Excise, Chandigarh, the only issue involved is as to whether the charges on account of Bank commission, Hundi commission or interest charged in the invoices be included in the assessable value or not. The Collector (Appeals) had held that these being post-clearance expenses and the commission as well as interest being payable to the bank, though charged in the account of the customers in the invoice, are to be given abatement from the assessable value in terms of the provisions of Section 4 of the Central Excise Act, and in view of the fact that appellants had opted for the procedure of clearances on invoice-value under Notification No. 120/75-C.E. would not make any difference.
2. It is contended in the appeal that once a party opts for the procedure of Notification No. 120/75-C.E., then it cannot claim benefit of the provisions of Section 4 and, as such, the Collector (Appeals) has gone wrong in holding that in spite of option for the procedure of Notification No. 120/75-C.E., principles of abatement to post-manufacturing expenses, as contained in Section 4, would still apply.
3. Shri B.R. Tripathi, SDR, appeared for the appellants whereas Shri P.S. Bedi, Consultant, represented the respondents. Except for reiterating what was stated in the appeal, Shri Tripathi had not much to argue and, on his attention being drawn to the judgments of the Tribunal, particularly that in the case of Collector of Central Excise, Chandigarh v. Oswal Agro Mill Ltd., Ludhiana, reported in ‘1985 (22) E.L.T. 159 (Tribunal)’, he has no comments to offer. We find in this case, the Tribunal has held specifically that the provisions of Section 4 of the Central Excises and Salt Act are statutory and any notification issued under Rule 8(1) of the Central Excise Rules has to be subsidiary to the principles laid down in the statute. In this view of the matter, it has been held that irrespective of the fact that though an assessee has opted for the procedure of invoice-value under Notification No. 120/75-C.E., principles as laid down in Section 4 for calculating the assessable value are to be kept in view and permissible deductions, such as equalised freight and transit insurance charges, etc., have to be allowed to be abated. On the same principles, the items in the present case; namely, Bank commission, Hundi commission and charges on account of interest payable to the Bank in the account of the customer are, admittedly, in the nature of post-manufacturing and post-clearance expenses, and cannot form part of the assessable value even though included in the invoice. We, therefore, do not find any infirmity in the order of the Collector (Appeals) and uphold the same. As a result, the appeal is dismissed.