Excise valuation and packing material: duty-paid wrapper paper cannot be added again to assessable value of packed goods.

Packing-value provisions were construed strictly, as they extend excise levy beyond the manufactured article itself. Where the assessee's own wrapper paper had already suffered excise duty separately, its value could not be added again to the assessable value of the core paper merely because the goods were cleared in packed condition. Including the duty-paid packing material would amount to a second levy on the same excisable article without authority of law, so the inclusion was unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether the value of duty-paid wrapper paper manufactured by the same assessee and used for packing core paper could be added to the assessable value of the core paper under the packing-value provision.

Analysis: The packing provision includes the cost of packing in the value of excisable goods where the goods are cleared in packed condition, and primary packing ordinarily forms part of the assessable value. The Court applied the settled principle that the provision must be construed strictly because it extends the levy beyond the manufactured article itself. On the facts, the wrapper paper had already suffered excise duty in the hands of the same manufacturer. Adding its value again to the value of the core paper would result in a second levy on the same excisable article without authority of law. The provision was therefore not available to justify inclusion of the wrapper paper's value in the assessable value of the core paper in these circumstances.

Conclusion: The value of the duty-paid wrapper paper could not be tacked on to the value of the core paper, and the demand based on such inclusion was unsustainable.

Ratio Decidendi: Where packing material manufactured by the same assessee has already suffered excise duty separately, its value cannot again be included in the assessable value of the packed goods so as to impose a second levy in the absence of authority of law.

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