Manufacture requires a new marketable commodity; slitting, rolling and painting aluminium sheets did not create one.

Mere slitting, rolling and painting of aluminium sheets did not amount to manufacture because the process did not create a new marketable commodity with a distinct name, character or use. The sheets were only reduced in width and thickness and painted, without emergence of a commercially distinct excisable product. The proposed classification under Chapter Heading 7616.90 was unsupported on the facts, and in the absence of a new excisable commodity the duty demand had no foundation. The impugned order was set aside and the appeals were allowed.

---

---

Issues: Whether the activity of slitting, rolling and painting aluminium sheets into strips resulted in manufacture of a new excisable product classifiable under Chapter Heading 7616.90.

Analysis: The processes carried out at the job-worker premises remained the same as those earlier examined by the Department, and those earlier proceedings had concluded that slitting, rolling and painting did not amount to manufacture. The aluminium sheets were only reduced in width and thickness and then painted; this did not bring into existence a commercially distinct product with a new name, character or use. The proposed classification under Chapter Heading 7616.90 was also not supported by any reasoning showing that the resultant aluminium strips fell within that heading. In the absence of emergence of a new excisable commodity, the foundational basis for duty demand failed.

Conclusion: The activity did not amount to manufacture and no new excisable product came into existence; the duty demand could not be sustained.

Final Conclusion: The impugned order was set aside and all the appeals were allowed.

Ratio Decidendi: A process amounts to manufacture only if it results in a new, marketable commodity having a distinct name, character and use; mere slitting, rolling and painting of aluminium sheets, without emergence of such a product, does not constitute manufacture under excise law.

---