Brand-name bar under SSI exemption applies when the manufacturer affixes another person's mark, regardless of later customer use.

Goods bearing another person's brand name remain outside SSI exemption where the notification excludes branded goods, and the buyer's later use of the goods as parts, accessories, inputs, or capital goods does not change that position. The brand-name test turns on whether the manufacturer affixes the other person's mark on the goods; customer intention or subsequent market use is irrelevant. The specified exception under paragraph 4(a) applies only if the prescribed concessional-removal procedure is followed. The branded transmitter-receivers were therefore ineligible for SSI exemption, although the text notes that the duty, interest, and penalty order was ultimately found unsustainable on the Tribunal's application of the exemption principle.

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Issues: Whether goods affixed with another person's brand name and cleared for use by the customer as parts or accessories of machinery remain ineligible for SSI exemption under Notification No. 9/2003-C.E., and whether the demand and penalty could be sustained on that footing.

Analysis: The exemption notification excludes goods bearing the brand name or trade name of another person, except in the specified cases. The Tribunal held that the relevant test is whether the goods manufactured by the assessee bear the brand name of another person; the customer's subsequent use of the goods, whether as inputs, parts, accessories, or capital goods, does not alter the exclusion. The exception in paragraph 4(a) was unavailable because the prescribed procedure under the concessional-removal rules had not been followed. Relying on the Supreme Court's construction of an identically worded notification, the Tribunal held that the customer's intention is irrelevant and that the brand-name bar applies even where the goods are not sold in the market as such.

Conclusion: The branded transmitter-receivers were not eligible for SSI exemption, but the assessee succeeded because the impugned order confirming duty, interest, and penalty was unsustainable on the Tribunal's application of the governing exemption principle.

Ratio Decidendi: Under an SSI exemption notification excluding goods bearing another person's brand name or trade name, the exemption is unavailable whenever the manufacturer affixes that brand on the goods, irrespective of the customer's later use of the goods, unless the specific notified exception and prescribed procedure are satisfied.

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