TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1997 (11) TMI 232
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....he appellants are the manufacturers of STAIONARY BATTERIES and they had planned their production for certain capacity and the Lead Oxide they were manufacturing was to suit that particular capacity. He has pleaded that the appellants are the manufacturers of the Batteries and resorted to four stages of operations which were integrated in nature and these operations were done at the following four stages :- (i) Oxide manufacturing (ii) Pas Mixing (iii) Pastings and (iv) Curing/Hydro setting. 3. He has pleaded that the Lead Oxide as it is could be manufactured by two methods namely Ball Mill process and Barton port process. He has pleaded that the appellants manufactured in their factory Lead Oxide by B....
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....pect of which duty has been demanded was not the goods in question as the appellants alone produce the same and there is no averment from the Revenue that this Lead Oxide could be sold in the market to anybody. He has pleaded that the Trade Notice was also issued whereby the indication was that the appellants product would be classifiable under the Tariff Heading 38 instead of 28. He has pleaded in this background notwithstanding the variety of the Lead Oxide manufactured by them no duty could be demanded from the appellants. He has pleaded that in any case the demand was hit by bar of limitation as the same has been raised for the period 1-5-1992 to 28-2-1993 and the show cause notice was issued on 3-10-1994. He has pleaded that the depart....
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....s not to say that the generic description of the item would change. He has pleaded that the Lead Oxide is a stable compound. He pleaded that when the appellants themselves say that its shelf life is three weeks, it would clearly show that product in question is capable of being sold in the market and therefore for that reason the question of product being non-marketable would not arise. 7. He has pleaded so far as the change of classification was concerned, the appellants did it on the basis of a trade notice having been issued. He has pleaded whether the classification is under one or the other headings, the question of excisability of the goods would arise and once the goods are found to be excisable the appellants have failed to ....
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....ctured by the appellant is for a specific use for a characteristics or structure which answers to the description of the Lead Oxide when a particular crystal structure formation after manufacture is capable of being stored in the SILOS which, according the ld. Consultant, could be kept over with a shelf life of about 3 weeks. That the appellants are not selling the goods, would not be of any consequences so long as it could be shown that the goods have a shelf life. This is capable of a particular end use and is known as distinct commodity technically. The Lead Oxide as set out under HAWLEY's CONDENSED CHEMICAL DICTIONARY is described as under :- Lead oxide, red. (red lead; minium; lead tetroxide). CAS : 1314-41-6. Pb3O4. Properties :....
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....rage batteries, ceramic cements and fluxes, pottery and glazes, glass, chromium pigments, oil refining, varnishes, paints, enamels; assay of precious metal ores, manufacture of red lead, cement (with glycerol), acid-resisting compositions, match-head compositions, other lead compounds, rubber accelerator. 11. It is seen that this lead oxide also is used for storage batteries. Again, there is nothing here to say that this in any way unstable compound. In the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Tech. terms the Lead Oxide Red is described under the heading LEAD TETROXIDE & LEAD DIOXIDE which are reproduced as under :- lead dioxide [INORG CHEM] PbO2 Poisonous brown crystals that decompose when heated; insoluble in water and alcoho....
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.... is that the appellants had a fair idea that the goods could be sold and therefore they came forward to file the price list. Even if the product that they were to manufacture was slightly different from what that were used, in our view, would not make any difference as both the products continue to be considered as Lead Oxide for their end use in the batteries although for two kinds of batteries. It is not understandable as to why the appellants did not come on record as to the clearances of the Lead Oxide for captive consumption and why they did not pay the duty in regard to the same. If they had any doubt, they should have sought clarification from the department, more so, when they had earlier filed price list with the department in resp....