Rule 57CC cannot apply to non-excisable waste materials merely because they appear in the tariff schedule.

Rule 57CC was analysed in the context of pressmud and biocompost, with the text stating that the demand of 8% of sale proceeds was unsustainable because neither material was excisable. Pressmud had already been treated as non-marketable waste, and biocompost, made by mixing pressmud with distillery effluents, was said to remain waste material rather than a new dutiable product. The presence of Heading 31.01 in the tariff schedule was described as insufficient by itself to make the products excisable. On that basis, the condition for invoking Rule 57CC was not met, and the Revenue's appeals failed.

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Issues: Whether Rule 57CC of the erstwhile Central Excise Rules, 1944 could be invoked to demand 8% of the sale proceeds of pressmud and biocompost on the footing that they were exempted final products or excisable goods.

Analysis: Pressmud had already been held to be non-marketable and hence not excisable. The same conclusion applied to biocompost, which was produced by mixing pressmud with distillery effluents, because an admixture of two waste materials remained waste material. The mere presence of Heading 31.01 in the tariff schedule did not by itself make the product excisable. Since the materials in question were not goods exigible to duty, the condition for invoking Rule 57CC was not satisfied.

Conclusion: The demand under Rule 57CC was not sustainable for either pressmud or biocompost, and the Revenue's appeals failed.

Ratio Decidendi: A waste material that is non-marketable and not exigible to excise duty cannot be treated as an exempted final product merely because it is listed in the tariff schedule, and Rule 57CC cannot be invoked on that basis.

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