Rakesh Kumar, Technical Member - The facts leading to filing of this appeal are, in brief, as under:—

1.1 The appellant are manufacturers of stainless steel utensils from S.S. Flats. The stainless steel utensils during the period of dispute were fully exempt from duty and, therefore, the appellant had not taken central excise registration. The period of dispute in this case is from 31.12.2002 to 31.03.2003 and during this period, they exported stainless steel utensils under claim for rebate under Rule 18 of the Central Excise Rules, 2002 of the excise duty paid on the inputs used in the manufacture of the stainless steel utensils. The rebate claims totaling Rs.9,26,000/- were rejected by the Asstt. Commissioner vide order-in-original dated 13.11.2004 on the ground that the input duty rebate under Rule 18 of the Central Excise Rules, 2002 was subject to following the condition and the procedure prescribed in this regard, under Notification No. 41/2001-CE(NT), dated 26.06.2001 read with Notification No. 42/2001-CE (NT) dated 26.06.2001 and the procedure for claiming rebate was not followed by the appellant inasmuch as the appellant neither made the required input output ratio dec