Assessable value and immovable property findings blocked duty challenge on testing charges for erected transmission towers.

Testing charges for transmission towers were not shown to form part of assessable value because the factual finding was that testing occurred after clearance of the goods on payment of duty and the record did not displace that finding. The erected towers were also treated as immovable property, since the lower authorities found them to be permanent structures on civil foundations, and the contention that they could be dismantled by unscrewing or unbolting did not rebut that conclusion. On those facts, the department's appeal failed and no interference was made with the lower authority's order.

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Issues: (i) Whether the charges incurred for testing of transmission towers were includible in the assessable value; (ii) whether the transmission towers, after erection, were immovable property and therefore not goods.

Issue (i): Whether the charges incurred for testing of transmission towers were includible in the assessable value.

Analysis: The finding below was that the testing took place after clearance of the goods on payment of duty and that the testing was destructive in nature. The appellate challenge proceeded on a contrary factual premise that testing was undertaken before clearance as an incidental and ancillary process of manufacture, but there was no material to displace the factual finding recorded by the lower authority.

Conclusion: The testing charges were not shown to be includible in the assessable value.

Issue (ii): Whether the transmission towers, after erection, were immovable property and therefore not goods.

Analysis: The lower authorities found on the documents produced that the towers were permanent structures erected on civil foundations. The challenge that they could be dismantled by unscrewing and unbolting did not rebut that finding.

Conclusion: The transmission towers were held to be immovable property after erection.

Final Conclusion: No interference was called for with the order of the lower authority, and the departmental appeal failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a factual finding that testing occurs after clearance is not displaced by evidence, and the erected structure is found to be a permanent fixture on a civil foundation, the department cannot succeed in including the testing charges in assessable value or in treating the structure as excisable goods.

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