Laminating duty-paid kraft paper with polyethylene can amount to manufacture and attract central excise duty again.

Duty-paid kraft paper laminated with polyethylene is treated as a commercially distinct processed product, so the laminating activity constitutes manufacture for central excise purposes. Applying prior precedent on treated paper, the laminated goods fall within the tariff entry for paper subjected to treatment and are not the same goods for excise purposes. The resulting product is therefore liable to central excise duty again under Tariff Item 17(2).

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Issues: Whether duty paid kraft paper laminated with polyethylene amounts to manufacture and is liable to central excise duty again under Tariff Item 17(2).

Analysis: The process of treatment of paper was treated as manufacture in the binding precedent relied upon by the Court. The Court also noted the later Supreme Court ruling on paper subjected to various treatments and applied the same principle to laminated kraft paper. On that basis, the laminated product was regarded as falling within the tariff entry for paper subjected to treatment and not as the same goods for excise purposes.

Conclusion: The process of laminating duty paid kraft paper with polyethylene amounts to manufacture, and the resulting product is liable to central excise duty again under Tariff Item 17(2).

Ratio Decidendi: Where duty paid paper is subjected to a process that results in a commercially distinct treated product covered by the relevant tariff entry, the process constitutes manufacture for excise purposes and attracts duty again.

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