Continuous manufacture and marketability determine separate excisability of a plastic container formed during infusion production.

A plastic container formed during the continuous manufacture and filling of intravenous infusion was not separately assessable because it did not emerge as an identifiable, marketable product in its own right. The Board circular principle applied was that a container cannot be treated as a separate excisable product unless it comes out of the process in a distinct form capable of independent market sale. On the facts described, the bottle was filled and sealed in the same operation and never became an independent marketable entity, so separate assessment was rejected.

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Issues: Whether a marketable plastic bottle came into existence as a separate and identifiable product during the continuous manufacture of an intravenous infusion, so as to warrant separate assessment.

Analysis: The Board circular stated that where a container does not emerge in an identifiable form as a separate entity in marketable condition, and the container formed in the machine cannot be taken out and marketed as an independent product, separate assessment of the container is not justified. The process described showed that the infusion was filled and sealed in the same continuous operation, and the container did not emerge as a distinct marketable bottle.

Conclusion: The container was not separately assessable; the issue was decided in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: A container formed in a continuous manufacturing process is not separately excisable unless it emerges as an identifiable and marketable product in its own right.

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