Independent job-work manufacturers, not raw material supplier, were treated as manufacturers; declaration requirement did not apply.

Where goods are produced by genuinely independent job-work manufacturers and there is no finding that they are dummies or surrogates of the supplier, the supplier is not treated as the manufacturer for Notification No. 111/78-C.E. The mere supply of raw materials does not, by itself, make the supplier the manufacturer or trigger the declaration requirement. Rule 9 applies at the place where goods are actually manufactured and removed, which in this case was the premises of the independent units, not the supplier's premises. The appellant was therefore outside the notification's declaration obligation.

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Issues: Whether the appellant, who supplied raw materials to independent manufacturers and received finished bolts and nuts on job work, could be treated as the manufacturer for the purpose of Notification No. 111/78-C.E. and be required to file the prescribed declaration.

Analysis: The order distinguished the Supreme Court decision relied upon by the Collector, noting that that case involved a fraudulent arrangement in which the so-called outside units were not genuinely independent and were in substance used by the assessee to produce goods on its own account. Here, the Collector himself treated the fabrication units as independent manufacturers and did not find that they were dummies or mere proxies of the appellant. On that factual footing, the goods were manufactured by those independent units and not by the appellant. The reasoning also rejected the notion that the mere supply of raw material, without control over the manufacturing units or proof that they were set up as fronts, converts the supplier into the manufacturer. Rule 9 was read as operating at the place where the goods are actually produced and removed, which in this case was the premises of the independent manufacturers, not the appellant's premises.

Conclusion: The appellant was not the manufacturer for the purpose of Notification No. 111/78-C.E. and was not required to comply with its declaration requirement.

Ratio Decidendi: Where goods are made by genuinely independent manufacturers on job work basis and there is no finding that they are dummies or surrogates of the supplier, the supplier is not treated as the manufacturer and clearances by such independent units cannot be treated as clearances by or on behalf of the supplier for the relevant exemption or declaration requirement.

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