Marketable waste products can be excisable when commercially identifiable and supported by an established market, as caustic lye was treated here.

Caustic lye generated during oxygen manufacture was treated as excisable under Tariff Item 68 because it was not merely worthless waste but a spent caustic solution with utility in the assessee's own tube-manufacturing unit and some market presence. The decisive principle applied was that a waste or rejected product can still be excisable if it is identifiable in commercial parlance by a marketable name and has an established market. On that basis, the residue could not be excluded from excisability merely because it arose as a by-product of the manufacturing process.

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Issues: Whether caustic lye arising during the manufacture of oxygen was excisable under Tariff Item 68 of the erstwhile Central Excise Tariff.

Analysis: The product emerged as a spent caustic solution containing sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate, and it was not in the nature of worthless dross or skimmings. The decisive consideration was that the product had utility in the appellants' own tube-manufacturing unit and was also admitted to have some market. Applying the principle that a waste or rejected product can be treated as excisable if it is known in commercial parlance by a marketable name and has an established market, the product could not be excluded from excisability merely because it arose as a residue in the manufacturing process.

Conclusion: The caustic lye was held to be excisable under Tariff Item 68, against the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The appeal failed because the disputed product was treated as a marketable excisable product rather than a non-excisable waste.

Ratio Decidendi: A waste or rejected product arising in manufacture is excisable if it is identifiable in commercial parlance and has an established market.

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