Site fabrication from duty-paid pipes was not manufacture; central excise demand on project-made bends and reducers failed.

Fabrication of miter bends and reducers from duty-paid pipes at a project site did not amount to manufacture where the items were made in the site workshop and used in the same water-supply project. The record did not support the department's premise that the goods were manufactured in a workshop and removed to the site, and the Tribunal followed its earlier view that similar site-fabricated items are not dutiable manufacture. The central excise demand therefore could not be sustained, and the connected penalty, confiscation and redemption fine also fell.

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Issues: Whether fabrication of miter bends and reducers from duty-paid pipes at the project site amounted to manufacture attracting central excise duty.

Analysis: The appellant executed a government water-supply project and fabricated the disputed items from duty-paid pipes at the site workshop for use in the same project. The show cause notice itself described the fabrication as having taken place at the Botad site. The lower authorities proceeded on the footing that the items were manufactured in a workshop and removed to the site, but the factual record did not support that view. Fabrication of such items at site for use at site was covered by the Tribunal's earlier view that similar site-fabricated items do not amount to manufacture liable to duty.

Conclusion: The fabrication did not amount to manufacture liable to excise duty, and the demand, penalty, confiscation and redemption fine could not be sustained.

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