Mere cutting of PVC tubes is not manufacture where no new marketable vacuum cleaner part emerges.

Merely cutting PVC tubing and pipes to specified sizes, without further processing, does not amount to manufacture of vacuum cleaner parts. The record showed only cut tubings and pipes, and did not establish narrowing, broadening, drilling, or any other conversion into finished parts; if any such work was done, it was by the purchaser. In the absence of a new and distinct marketable product, classification under heading 85.09 was not justified, and the duty demand and penalty were held unsustainable. The materials remained classifiable as tubes and pipes under chapter 39.

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Issues: Whether merely cutting PVC tubing and pipes to specified sizes, without further processing, amounted to manufacture of parts of vacuum cleaners so as to justify classification under heading 85.09, levy of duty, and penalty.

Analysis: The seized goods showed only cut tubings and pipes. The record did not establish that the appellant had undertaken the further processes of narrowing one end, broadening the other end, drilling holes, or otherwise converting the tubes into vacuum cleaner parts; the evidence indicated that such processing, if any, was carried out by the purchaser. In the absence of proof of conversion into a new and distinct marketable product, mere cutting to size did not amount to manufacture. The cited decisions supporting that cutting and similar minimal processes do not create a new commodity, and the classification of tubes and pipes under chapter 39, reinforced this conclusion.

Conclusion: The cut tubing and pipes were not liable to be treated as parts of vacuum cleaners, duty demand and penalty were unsustainable, and the appeal succeeded in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Mere cutting of tubes and pipes to specified dimensions, without further processing that brings into existence a new and distinct commodity, does not constitute manufacture.

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