Unusable asbestos waste is not excisable merely because it is sold; tariff classification and marketability remain essential.

Unusable remnants of asbestos sheets left after gasket manufacture, sold only as waste, were considered outside Heading 6805.90 because they were neither fit for use as sheets nor for further gasket production. The tariff scheme and HSN notes for articles of asbestos were applied to conclude that mere sale of the remnants did not make them a marketable excisable commodity. The material was therefore treated as manufacturing waste rather than an article of asbestos sheet, and duty was held not payable. The reasoning also noted that similar relief had already been granted earlier in the assessee's own case.

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Issues: Whether remnants of asbestos sheets, left over after manufacture of gaskets and sold as waste, were classifiable as articles of asbestos sheet under Heading 6805.90 and liable to central excise duty.

Analysis: The remnants were found to be unusable as sheets or for further gasket manufacture and were sold only as waste. On the tariff scheme and the HSN notes for articles of asbestos, such waste material did not fall within Heading 6805.90. Mere sale of the remnants did not make them a marketable commodity exigible to duty, especially when earlier relief had already been granted on the same issue in the appellant's own case.

Conclusion: The remnants were not classifiable as articles of asbestos sheet and were not exigible to duty; the finding was in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Unusable manufacturing waste is not dutiable merely because it is sold, unless it answers the tariff classification and is otherwise marketable as a distinct excisable commodity.

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