Immovable property and excise valuation: site-erected weighing systems cannot be assessed as a whole, though components remain dutiable.

An electronic weighing system erected and installed at the customer's site was treated as immovable property and not excisable goods, so its value could not be assessed as a whole in CKD or unassembled form. On that basis, bought-out items used in the site-erected system were not includible in the assessable value of the final system, and duty demand on that composite value was unsustainable. Separately identifiable manufactured components, including the consoles/data processors, remained dutiable on their own clearance and were classifiable as automatic data processing machines under Heading 84.71.

---

---

Issues: Whether the value of bought-out items used in an electronic weighing system erected at site was includible in the assessable value of the system, and whether the system was excisable goods or an immovable property.

Analysis: The system was assembled and installed at the customers' site from manufactured and bought-out components, with only the consoles/data processors manufactured in the factory. The decisive question was whether the finished system could be treated as excisable goods in CKD or unassembled form. The Board's circular/order under Section 37B of the Central Excise Act had clarified that where the final product is immovable and hence not excisable goods, the same cannot be treated as dutiable as a whole merely because it is cleared in parts, though identifiable excisable components remain liable on their own clearance. On that approach, the electronic weighing system erected at site was not excisable goods, while the consoles/data processors remained separately classifiable as automatic data processing machines under Heading 84.71.

Conclusion: The value of the bought-out items was not includible in the assessable value of the electronic weighing system, and the demand of duty was unsustainable.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the final product erected at site is immovable property and not excisable goods, its value cannot be assessed as a whole in CKD or unassembled form, though separately identifiable excisable components remain dutiable on clearance.

---