Tariff classification of patta patti turned on strip requirements, with coil form held essential for exclusion from strip entries.

Patta patti was held not to be strip because the tariff concept of strip required the stated technical characteristics, including supply in coil or flattened coil form, and the product was not so supplied. For the period prior to 1-8-1983, departmental clarification that strip was expected to be in coil form supported exclusion from the strip entry. After 1-8-1983, the tariff explanation was read as not treating "straight length" as an independent alternative, but only as explanatory of flattened coil. The goods were therefore classified under Tariff Item 26AA(ia) before 1-8-1983 and under Tariff Item 25(8) after 1-8-1983.

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Issues: Whether patta patti was classifiable as strip under the Central Excise Tariff prior to 1-8-1983 and after 1-8-1983, or fell under the competing tariff entries relied upon by the assessees.

Analysis: The tariff position prior to 1-8-1983 was examined with reference to the departmental clarification that strip was expected to be in coil form. For the period after 1-8-1983, the definition of strip in the tariff explanation was considered to require satisfaction of the stated conditions, including approximate rectangular cross-section, mill rolled or sheared or trimmed edges, and supply in coil or flattened coil form. The product in question was found not to be in coil or flattened coil form, and the expression "straight length" was treated as only explanatory of flattened coil, not as an independent alternative. The reasoning also accepted that the concept of strip in the tariff could not be divorced from the technical features of a strip product, and relied on the binding effect of the Supreme Court's approval of the earlier view that similar goods not produced or supplied in the requisite coil form were not strip.

Conclusion: Patta patti was not strip and was not classifiable under the revenue's proposed strip entries; it was classifiable under Tariff Item 26AA(ia) prior to 1-8-1983 and under Tariff Item 25(8) after 1-8-1983, in favour of the assessee.

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