Site-assembled refrigerating parts outside excise duty where tariff covers only ready assembled marketable units.

Cooling coils and condensers assembled and installed at the cold storage site were treated as outside Item 29A(3) of the First Schedule to the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 because the tariff entry was read as a whole and the phrase "parts thereof" was confined to appliances and machinery ordinarily sold or offered for sale as ready assembled units. Complete refrigerating or air-conditioning plants erected at site were therefore excluded, and the same reasoning applied to site-assembled parts. As the goods were not ready assembled marketable goods, they were not liable to excise duty under the item, and the demand could not stand.

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Issues: Whether cooling coils and condensers assembled at the site of a cold storage plant were chargeable to excise duty as parts of refrigerating and air-conditioning machinery under Item 29A(3) of the First Schedule to the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944.

Analysis: The tariff entry was read as a whole, with the expression "parts thereof" taking colour from the requirement that the covered appliances and machinery be ordinarily sold or offered for sale as ready assembled units. Complete refrigerating or air-conditioning plants erected at site were held to fall outside the entry, and the same reasoning was applied to parts erected at site. Since the coils and condensers were assembled and installed at the factory site and were not ready assembled goods ordinarily sold in the market, they were not treated as dutiable under the tariff item.

Conclusion: The site-assembled cooling coils and condensers were not liable to excise duty under Item 29A(3), and the demand was unsustainable.

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