Erection and installation of BTS equipment at site is not manufacture for excise purposes where binding precedent covers identical facts.

Erection and installation of BTS/relay station equipment at site, including cable connections for telecom operations, was treated as not amounting to manufacture for central excise purposes. The Tribunal relied on its earlier decision in the assessee's own case on identical facts and noted that the adjudicating authority failed to address that binding precedent, amounting to non-application of mind. On that basis, the duty demand and consequential penalties could not be sustained.

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Issues: Whether the activity of erection and installation of BTS/relay station equipment and connection by cable amounted to manufacture so as to attract central excise duty and consequential penalties.

Analysis: The issue was held to be covered by the Tribunal's earlier decision in the assessee's own case on an identical set of facts. That decision treated erection of BTS and allied equipment at site and their connection by cable as not amounting to manufacture. In view of the earlier binding decision, the adjudicating authority's failure to deal with the applicability of that order was treated as non-application of mind.

Conclusion: The activity did not amount to manufacture and the duty demand and penalties could not be sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: Erection and installation of BTS equipment at site, including connection by cable for telecom operations, does not amount to manufacture for excise purposes when the issue is already covered by a binding decision on identical facts.

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