Excise classification turned on physical characteristics and process: flattened aluminium wire rods were not aluminium strips.

Excise classification depended on the product's actual physical characteristics and manufacturing process, not on assumption. Aluminium goods produced by re-drawing and flattening wire rods were not made by a strip mill or flat mill process, and the record did not show them to answer the tariff description of strips as flat products of rectangular section. On that basis, the products were held to be flattened wire rods rather than aluminium strips, and the departmental classification was set aside.

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Issues: Whether flattened aluminium wire rods produced by re-drawing and flattening were classifiable as aluminium strips under the excise tariff or as flattened wire rods.

Analysis: The goods were found to be manufactured by flattening aluminium wire rods and not by any strip mill or flat mill process. The decisive test applied was the tariff description of strips as flat products of rectangular section, whereas the goods in question had a different physical contour and were not shown to answer that description. The order below had proceeded on an assumption of rectangular section without proper examination of the goods and manufacturing process. The materials on record supported the assessee's case that the products were flattened wire rods rather than strips.

Conclusion: The goods were not strips and could not be classified as such; the assessee succeeded on the classification issue.

Final Conclusion: The departmental classification was set aside and the products were held to fall outside the strip category under the tariff.

Ratio Decidendi: For excise classification, the actual physical characteristics and manufacturing process of the product must govern, and a product cannot be classified as a strip unless it answers the tariff description of a flat product of rectangular section.

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