JUDGMENT

ORDER OF COURT (9-5-1983) :— We make the following order for reasons which we shall give later :.

(A) The position prior to the amendment of Section 4 of the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 by XXII of 1973 :

The value of excisable article for determining the excise duty leviable on it under the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 shall be taken to be :

(i) the price at which the excisavle article is sold by the assessee to a buyer at arms length in the course of wholesale trade at the time and place of removal;

(ii) Where the excisable article is not sold by the assessee in wholesale trade, the price at which the excisable article or an article of the like kind and quality is capable of being sold in wholesale trade at the time and place of removal;

(iii) Where the excisable article or an article of the like kind and quality is not sold in wholesale trade at the place of removal, that is, at the factory gate, but is sold in the wholesale trade at a place outside the factory gate, the price at which the excisable article is sold in the wholesale trade at such place, after deducting therefrom the cost of transporation of the excisable article from the factory gate to such place