Per Justice U.L. Bhat :

Collector of Central Excise is appellant in appeal E/432/89-A and M/s. Bajaj Auto Ltd. is the common appellant in the remaining appeals.

2. There were various controversies between the Department and the assessee, but we are concerned only with two among those controversies, namely, includability of excise duty in the assessable value for the purposes of determination of cess payable under Industrial (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951 and the deductibility of exempted sales-tax from the assessable value under Section 4 (4) (d) (ii) of the Central Excises Act, 1944.

3. The first question arises in appeal E/432/89-A and the second question arises in the other three appeals.

4. So far as the first question is concerned, the Tribunal has been consistently holding that for the purpose of determining cess under the Industrial (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951, excise duty payable would not be included in the assessable value. Therefore, the stand taken by the Assistant Collector is not sustainable and the view taken by the Collector (Appeals) is correct. However, in expressing the view, the Collector (Appeals) instead of using the word "exclusion" used t