Marketability is essential for excise duty on captively used resins in plywood manufacture.

UF and PF resins manufactured captively in plywood production were held not to be excisable unless the department proved they were marketable goods commonly bought and sold in the market. In the absence of evidence of marketability, the Tribunal applied the settled principle that captive use alone does not attract excise duty, and the Revenue's challenge failed.

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Issues: Whether UF and PF resins manufactured for captive use in the manufacture of plywood were excisable commodities liable to duty.

Analysis: The department failed to adduce evidence that the UF/PF solutions produced in the plywood factories were manufactured products commonly bought and sold in the market as such. The decision followed the binding view that marketability is essential to attract excise liability, and the Tribunal found no reason to take a different view in the absence of any contrary stay or order from the other High Court proceedings.

Conclusion: The resins were not shown to be marketable excisable goods, and the appeal by the Revenue was rejected.

Ratio Decidendi: Goods manufactured for captive use are not exigible to excise unless they are shown to be marketable products forming commodities commonly bought and sold in the market.

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