Waxing base paper can amount to manufacture when it creates a commercially distinct excisable product under the same tariff entry.

Waxing plain or printed base paper is treated as manufacture when the process gives the goods a distinct commercial identity, character and use. Applying the established test of whether a new and different article emerges in trade, wax paper is regarded as a separate excisable product even though it falls under the same tariff entry as the base paper. The operative effect is that duty remains lawfully leviable on the processed wax paper, and refund claims based on the absence of manufacture fail.

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Issues: Whether waxing of plain or printed base paper amounts to manufacture so as to create a commercially distinct excisable product liable to duty under the same tariff item.

Analysis: The dispute turned on whether the process of waxing base paper brought into existence a new and different article in commercial parlance. The reasoning adopted the principle that where processing results in goods having a distinct name, character, and use, the process constitutes manufacture. Applying that principle, the court treated wax paper as a new product distinct from the base paper and therefore dutiable under the same tariff entry.

Conclusion: The waxing process amounts to manufacture and the resultant wax paper is liable to excise duty under Tariff Item No. 17(2) of the First Schedule to the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944, against the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The refund claims failed because the duty was held lawfully leviable on the processed wax paper, and the writ petitions were dismissed.

Ratio Decidendi: A process that converts duty-paid base paper into commercially distinct wax paper constitutes manufacture and renders the resultant product separately exigible to excise duty under the same tariff entry.

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