Judgment

S.P. Bharucha, J.-The Revenue assails the correctness of the judgment and order of the Customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribu­nal. The appeals involve the interpretation of Section 9 of the Indus­tries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951, the notification dated 28th December, 1983, issued thereunder and Rules 2 and 3 of the Auto­mobile Cess Rules, 1984. The relevant provisions are reproduced :-

The Industries (Development & Regulation) Act, 1951:

“Section 9.-Imposition of cess on scheduled industries in certain cases. -(1) There may be levied and collected as a cess for the pur­poses of this Act on all goods manufactured or produced in any such scheduled industry as may be specified in this behalf by the Central Government by notified order a duty of excise at such rate as may be specified in the notified order, and different rates may be specified for different goods or different classes of goods:

Provided that no such rate shall in any case exceed two annas per cent of value of the goods.

Explanation : In this sub-section, the expression “value” in relation to any goods shall be deemed to be the wholesale cash price for which such goods of the like kind and qua