Depots packing Mineral Turpentine Oil did not create manufacture; excise valuation stayed at bulk removal price, not later sale price.

Filling or packing Mineral Turpentine Oil at depots did not amount to manufacture or deemed manufacture, because no new or commercially different product emerged and the deeming provision in Section 2(f) did not extend to this commodity. Bulk removals from the refinery and bonded installation were marketable and were assessable under Section 4 at the time and place of removal, not on the later packed sale price. Section 4(4)(d)(i) was inapplicable because the goods were not delivered in packed condition at removal. The packing stations were neither factories nor licensed warehouses, so no differential duty or penalty arose.

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Issues: Whether filling or packing bulk Mineral Turpentine Oil at the depots amounted to manufacture or deemed manufacture so as to attract fresh excise duty, and whether the assessable value of the bulk removals could be enhanced by reference to the later packed sale price, with consequential liability to differential duty and penalty.

Analysis: The goods were removed from the refinery and bonded installation in bulk on payment of duty, and the subsequent activity at the depots was only filling or packing. No new or commercially different product came into existence, and the process did not amount to manufacture under Section 3 of the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944. The deeming provision in Section 2(f) of the same Act was confined to specified goods and did not extend to Mineral Turpentine Oil. The commodity was also marketable in bulk, as bulk sales were in fact made from the places of removal. For valuation, Section 4 required assessment at the time and place of removal, namely the factory or bonded warehouse, and not at the later stage of actual sale. Section 4(4)(d)(i) was inapplicable because the goods were not delivered in packed condition at the time of removal. The packing stations were neither factories nor licensed warehouses, and the goods had already been assessed on the bulk price at the point of removal.

Conclusion: Packing at the depots did not amount to manufacture or deemed manufacture, the bulk removals were correctly assessable at the place of removal on the bulk price, and no differential duty or penalty was payable against the assessee.

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