1988 (6) TMI 169

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....the appellants were engaged in mounting/fixing/fitting the specialised equipment on duty-paid chassis exceeding 2500 c.c. engine capacity and converting such chassis into Hi-lift commissary van, Baggage Conveyor, Passenger steps, Tow Tug, Pilot Dollies, Water and Locklets, Aerial Tower Wagon, Truck Dumping Platform, Articulated Mobile Crane. These specialised vehicles are a common sight at the air-ports, ports, construction sites etc. The impugned order as well as the learned representative of the department accept the position that by virtue of the special definition of "motor vehicles" in Item 34 of the Central Excise Tariff, the whole thing is a motor vehicle and also that because of the express provision made in Explanation II below tha....

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....is a vehicle with the equipment fitted on it and not the equipment as such and it is the specialised vehicle which is removed from the factory and not the equipment as a separate article When the whole thing is one identifiable entity - a specialised motor vehicle - there is no warrant in the Tariff to notionally break it into two parts for the sake of assessing the equipment part separately under Item 68. The scheme of the Tariff was, on the contrary, quite the opposite. It was to treat the whole composite thing as a motor vehicle but to ignore the specialised equipment part while assessing the composite vehicle. Since the specialised equipment did not come into existence as a separate identifiable article, but was born only as a fixture o....