Marketability is essential for excise: molten slag, as waste by-product, was not treated as excisable goods.

Molten slag and granulated slag were treated as non-marketable by-products rather than excisable goods, because mere capability of sale or some recoverable value does not satisfy commercial marketability. The Tribunal applied earlier rulings on blast furnace slag and the Supreme Court principle that waste or rubbish does not become marketable goods for excise purposes simply because it can be sold. On that basis, the demand was found unsustainable, the impugned order was set aside, and the appeal was allowed.

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Issues: Whether molten slag and granulated slag were marketable commodities and therefore excisable goods liable to duty.

Analysis: The Tribunal relied on earlier decisions holding that blast furnace slag was not excisable goods and on the principle that mere possibility of sale does not make a substance marketable in the commercial sense. It noted the Supreme Court's view that materials which are essentially waste or rubbish, though capable of being sold or yielding some recoverable value, do not thereby become marketable commodities or goods for excise purposes.

Conclusion: Molten slag was not marketable as understood in commercial parlance and was not excisable goods; the demand was unsustainable and the issue was decided in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The impugned order was set aside and the appeal was allowed.

Ratio Decidendi: A by-product or residue that is essentially waste or rubbish does not become excisable goods merely because it can be sold or has some recoverable value; marketability in the commercial sense is essential for excise liability.

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