Marketability test for excise duty excludes an unfinished intermediate product that cannot be sold as goods.

Excise duty applies only when a manufactured article is marketable as goods, meaning it must be capable of sale to consumers in the relevant sense. An intermediate product arising in varnish manufacture was described as an unfinished brown viscous sticky mass that could not be marketed as such and was unusable by ordinary consumers or other manufacturers without further elaborate processing and specialised know-how. On that basis, it did not satisfy the test of marketability and was not liable to excise duty.

---

---

Issues: Whether the intermediate product at the stage of manufacture of varnish constituted excisable goods liable to duty.

Analysis: The intermediate product was found to be an unfinished brown viscous sticky mass, incapable of being marketed in that condition and not usable as resin by ordinary consumers or other manufacturers without further elaborate processing and specialised know-how. Excise duty is attracted only when the manufactured article answers the description of goods, which, in the relevant constitutional context, means articles capable of being sold to a consumer.

Conclusion: The intermediate product was not marketable goods and was therefore not liable to excise duty.

---