Manufacture test for stainless steel wire: straightening and cutting alone does not create a new excisable product.

Straightening and cutting stainless steel wire into required sizes did not amount to manufacture under the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944, because the material remained stainless steel wire after processing. No new or commercially distinct product with a different name, character or use emerged, and a mere change in form or local description was insufficient to satisfy the test of manufacture. The process therefore did not attract central excise duty on the goods described as filler wire.

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Issues: Whether straightening and cutting stainless steel wires into required sizes amounted to manufacture under section 2(f) of the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944, so as to attract central excise duty.

Analysis: The processing only straightened and cut the stainless steel wire. The material remained stainless steel wire after processing, and no new substance or commercially different product came into existence. Mere change in form or local description did not satisfy the test of manufacture, which requires emergence of a new and distinct article having a different name, character or use.

Conclusion: The process did not amount to manufacture and no central excise duty was leviable on the goods described as filler wire.

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