Customs exemption for jig boring machine survives despite additional drilling and milling functions, as ancillary capabilities do not defeat classification.

A tool room precision co-ordinate jig boring machine remained eligible for customs exemption even though it could also perform drilling and milling. The Tribunal held that additional functions do not disqualify a machine from a notification entry unless those functions are shown to be equally principal and to take the machine outside the notified description. Applying that principle, it found no sufficient material to treat drilling and milling as equally important to jig boring in the machine under consideration. The exemption was upheld and the departmental challenge failed.

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Issues: Whether a jig boring machine imported by the assessee was entitled to exemption under Notification No. 40/78-Cus. dated 1-3-1978 notwithstanding its capability of performing drilling and milling functions in addition to jig boring.

Analysis: The notification covered a tool room precision co-ordinate jig boring machine with or without numerical control. The mere fact that the machine could also perform drilling and milling did not, by itself, disqualify it from the exemption. The Tribunal relied on earlier decisions holding that exemption cannot be denied merely because a machine performs functions other than those specified in the notification, and found no sufficient material to treat drilling and milling as functions equally important as jig boring in the machine under consideration.

Conclusion: The machine remained eligible for the exemption and the departmental challenge failed.

Final Conclusion: The exemption was upheld and the appeal was dismissed.

Ratio Decidendi: A machine does not lose eligibility for an exemption entry merely because it performs additional functions, unless those functions are shown to be equally principal so as to take the machine outside the notified description.

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