Nickel alloy classification under customs exemption extends to predominating nickel alloys covered by broad notification language.

Nickel alloy bars containing more than 90% nickel were treated as falling within the expression "nickel" and "alloys of nickel" for concessional duty under Notification No. 21/2002-Customs. The tariff notes were applied so that an alloy of base metal is classified as the metal that predominates by weight, and a reference to nickel includes nickel alloys unless the context otherwise requires. Because the notification used a broad commodity description and referred to the chapter rather than a narrower heading, the alloy bars were covered by the exemption.

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Issues: Whether nickel alloy bars imported by the respondent were eligible for concessional duty under Notification No. 21/2002-Customs as "nickel" or "alloys of nickel" falling under Chapter 75 of the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act.

Analysis: The imported goods were hollow bars of nickel alloy and were found on chemical test to contain more than 90% nickel. Under Section Note 5(a), an alloy of base metal is to be classified as the alloy of the metal which predominates by weight over each of the other metals. Section Note 6 further provides that a reference to nickel includes nickel alloys which, by virtue of Note 5, are to be classified as alloys of that metal unless the context otherwise requires. Since the notification referred broadly to "Nickel and articles of nickel" and mentioned only the chapter, not a narrower tariff heading, the expression was held to include nickel alloys answering the statutory parameters.

Conclusion: The imported nickel alloy bars were covered by the notification and qualified for concessional duty; the departmental appeal failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an exemption notification uses a generic commodity description and the tariff notes deem an alloy to be the metal that predominates by weight, the notification extends to the alloy if it satisfies those tariff-note parameters.

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