Marketability governs excise liability where untrimmed hardboard is sold as such and further processing is disputed.

Excise duty is attracted only when a product emerges as the market-known commodity described in the tariff, not merely when a process is completed. Untrimmed hardboard was treated as excisable only if trimming was necessary to make manufacture complete, but the authorities ignored evidence that untrimmed hardboard was regularly sold as such in trade. Because the refund refusal proceeded on an erroneous view of marketability and failed to consider relevant material, the order was set aside and the matter remitted for fresh consideration with liberty to adduce further evidence.

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Issues: Whether untrimmed hardboard was a complete manufactured product known to the market and therefore not liable to excise duty on the footing that trimming was merely an incidental or ancillary process; and whether the revenue orders rejecting refund by ignoring relevant evidence and proceeding on an erroneous view of law were sustainable.

Analysis: Excise duty is attracted by manufacture, not by sale or actual removal, and goods in the tariff must be understood in their commercial sense. An intermediate product is excisable only if it is known in the market as the commodity described in the tariff item and the manufacturing process is complete. If further processing is required to make the article recognizable as the market commodity, manufacture is not complete. On the facts, the authorities assumed that untrimmed hardboard was not marketable hardboard and that trimming necessarily completed manufacture, but they failed to deal with evidence indicating that untrimmed hardboard was regularly sold as such. Relevant material was ignored and the conclusion on common trade practice had no proper evidentiary basis.

Conclusion: The refusal of refund was unsustainable. The order was set aside and the revision was remitted for fresh consideration in accordance with law, after allowing the parties to adduce further material.

Ratio Decidendi: For excise purposes, a commodity is manufactured only when it emerges as the market-known product described in the tariff, and an authority commits legal error if it rejects that position without considering relevant evidence on marketability and trade understanding.

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