Movability test for site-assembled plant: permanently fixed refrigeration units are immovable property, not excisable goods.

A refrigeration plant or cold storage assembled at the customer's premises from duty-paid components and permanently fixed to civil foundations was treated as immovable property, not excisable goods. Applying the test of movability, the article could not be shifted and used in the same condition elsewhere, so its erection at site did not amount to manufacture of a new marketable commodity. As the constituent parts had already suffered duty, no further central excise levy could be imposed on the assembled plant, and the associated penalty consequences could not survive.

---

---

Issues: Whether the refrigeration plant/cold storage erected at site constituted excisable goods liable to central excise duty, and whether the duty demand and consequential penalties were sustainable.

Analysis: The plant was assembled and erected at the customers' premises from bought-out, duty-paid components and was permanently fixed to civil construction by concrete foundation. Applying the test of movability, the structure could not be regarded as movable to another place for use in the same condition and was therefore an immovable property. Immovable property does not amount to excisable goods, and the process of erecting such a plant at site did not bring into existence a new marketable commodity so as to constitute manufacture. Since the constituent parts had already suffered duty, no further excise burden could be levied on the assembled plant.

Conclusion: The refrigeration plant/cold storage was not excisable goods, the duty demand was unsustainable, and the penalties could not stand.

Ratio Decidendi: An article assembled and permanently fixed at site, which cannot be moved without dismantling and re-erection, is immovable property and not excisable goods; no central excise duty can be levied on such site-assembled structures in the absence of manufacture of a new marketable commodity.

---