Page 296 - ELT_1_1st April 2020_Vol 372_Part

182 EXCISE LAW TIMES [ Vol. 372
refining/processing of edible vegetable oil, neither in Section note nor in Chapter
note nor in Tariff item process indicated as amounting to manufacture and the
product even after refining, remains edible vegetable oil. As actual manufacture
has not taken place, deeming provision cannot be brought into play in absence of
it being specifically stated that the process amounts to manufacture. The Ld.
Commissioner has concluded that the essence of the concept of “manufacture” in
Central Excise is that “whenever a commodity undergoes a change as a result of
some operation performed on it, such operation would amount to processing of
the commodity. But it is only when the change or a series of changes takes the
commodity to the point where commercially, it can no longer be regarded as the
original commodity but is recognized as a new and distinct article. In the instant
case of the assessee, the test report of raw material of Batch No. 13/384 and
13/374 have shown the purity of ‘unrefined lead ingots’ in the range of 97.9% to
99.4% whereas the finished goods ‘lead alloy ingots’ in the range of 99.9% to
99.98%. Therefore, it may be observed that the name and character of the lead
ingots has not undergone any change as there is practically no difference be-
tween the character of the original ingots and the processed ingots. Admittedly,
the original ‘lead ingots’ may have undergone a minor change with respect to the
purity percentage of the metal contained, however, the original character of the
goods would not be lost and minor change in chemical composition would not
amount to manufacture of a distinct commodity as specifically held in the case of
Hindustan Cables and Exide Industries (supra).
15.3 We observed that expression “manufacture” under Section 2(f)
was initially not correctly interpreted as per C.B.E. & C. Letter F. No. 4/3/2006,
dated 16-6-2006 wherein it has been clarified that a number of departmental and
private publications of Central Excise Act, 1944, published from time to time af-
ter 1986, contain(ed) an extra word “and” at the end of Section 2(f)(i) and before
Section 2(f)(ii). The Section 2(f) reads as - “manufacture” includes any process,
Incidental or ancillary to the completion of a manufactured product, which
means that if the goods have been manufacturer) and any activity is done there-
on for completion of the activity for further use, it shall amount to manufacture.
A similar issue has been examined by this Tribunal in the Jindal Stainless Steelway
Limited (supra) wherein the appellant was engaged in cutting and slitting of coils.
In addition to that they have carried out the slitting into desirable width as per
the customers’ requirement, larger weight coils are cut into smaller weight as per
the customers’ requirement, that the coils are coated and layered with plastic for
improving drawability besides applying inter-leaving paper for protection of
material so as to be fit for end use application. The said activity was examined by
this Tribunal, as defined under Section 2(f) wherein the process incidental or an-
cillary, was held to amounts to manufacture.
16. Admittedly, in this case, M/s. GM is engaged in the activity of re-
moving impurities from unrefined lead ingots for making lead alloy and thereaf-
ter alloy ingots. The refined lead has been recognised in Chapter 78 of Central
Excise Tariff Act, 1985. In this Chapter, the expression “refined lead” means met-
al containing by weight at least 99.9% of lead, provided that the content by
weight of any other element does not exceed the limit specified in the following
Table :
TABLE-OTHER ELEMENTS
Element Limiting content %
by weight
Ag Silver 0.02

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