Gas filling into cylinders not manufacture; incidental cylinder charges excluded from assessable value and duty demand fails.

Filling gas from tanker or bulk supply into cylinders was treated as not amounting to manufacture, following earlier Tribunal decisions. On that footing, cylinder handling charges, rental charges, and loading and unloading charges relating to cylinders containing liquid oxygen and liquid argon were not required to be included in the assessable value. With the activity itself falling outside manufacture, the valuation dispute on incidental cylinder-related charges did not survive, and the duty demand and penalty were not sustainable.

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Issues: Whether cylinder handling charges, rental charges, loading and unloading charges relating to cylinders containing liquid oxygen and liquid argon were includible in the assessable value, and whether the activity of filling such gases into cylinders amounted to manufacture.

Analysis: The activity of filling gas from tanker or bulk supply into cylinders had already been held in earlier Tribunal decisions to be not manufacture. Once the activity itself did not amount to manufacture, the question of valuation and inclusion of incidental cylinder-related charges in the assessable value did not survive for consideration.

Conclusion: The charges were not includible in the assessable value, and the duty demand and penalty could not be sustained.

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