Mere sawing of imported timber does not alter identity, so Special Additional Duty refund remained admissible.

Refund of Special Additional Duty under Notification No. 102/07-Cus remained available where imported teak wood logs were only sawn into smaller pieces before sale, because no new product came into existence and the essential identity of the imported goods was unchanged. Mere cutting or sawing of timber into marketable sizes was treated as insufficient to amount to a fundamental transformation, so refund could not be denied on the ground of such processing and the denial was set aside in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether refund of Special Additional Duty was admissible under Notification No. 102/07-Cus when imported teak wood logs were sawn into smaller pieces before sale.

Analysis: The imported goods were only cut into smaller pieces for sale and no new product came into existence. The essential identity of the imported article remained unchanged, and the mere sawing of timber logs did not amount to a fundamental transformation so as to deny the notification benefit. The decision followed the settled view that refund cannot be refused on the ground of such processing when the goods sold in the market are not commercially different from the imported goods.

Conclusion: The refund of Special Additional Duty was held admissible, and the denial of refund was set aside in favour of the assessee.

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