Manufacture test under Central Excise fails where cleats are fixed to duty-paid belts without creating a new excisable product.

Fixing cleats to duty-paid endless belts purchased from the open market did not amount to manufacture under Central Excise law, because the process did not bring into existence a new excisable product and no provision treated such fixing as manufacture. The activity was therefore outside the scope of manufacture, and the revenue appeal was unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether fixing cleats to duty-paid endless belts purchased from the market amounted to manufacture under the Central Excise law.

Analysis: The belts were already duty-paid and obtained from the open market. The activity in question was only the fixing of cleats to those belts. On these facts, the process did not bring into existence a new excisable product, and there was no provision under the Central Excise law to treat such fixing of cleats as manufacture.

Conclusion: The activity did not constitute manufacture. The revenue appeal was unsustainable.

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