2000 (2) TMI 450

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....he Central Excise Rules, they had claimed exemption from duty on gauges and valve checking plates under Notification No. 217/86 dated 2-4-1986. The Department took the view that exemption under the said Notification was not available to the above products because, according to them, the said products were not covered by the expression "inputs" under the Notification. The Department accordingly, by show cause notice, demanded duty on the clearances of gauges and valve checking plates made by the party during the period December, 1992 to May, 1993, amounting to Rs. 238.87. The appellants contested this demand by way of their reply to the show cause notice. The dispute was adjudicated by the jurisdictional Assistant Collector of Central Excise....

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....ts" does not include - (i)  machines, machinery, plant, equipment, apparatus, tools or appliances used for producing or processing of any goods or for bringing about any change in any substance in or in relation to the manufacture of the final products". The learned SDR has further submitted that measuring and checking of goods during the process of manufacture of the final products was an integral and essential part of the process inasmuch as the quality control of the final products was exercised only through such measurements and checking of goods and such quality control was integrally linked with the marketability of the final products. The learned SDR has therefore submitted that the gauges and valve checking plates used fo....

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....uring and checking activities (using the gauges and valve checking plates) by the appellants during the period of dispute had anything to do with the producing or processing of any goods or with any change in any substance in or in relation to the manufacture of the final products in the appellants' factory. This issue is quite different from the above issue which had arisen before the Apex Court in the case of Rajasthan State Chemical Works inasmuch as the measuring and checking activities on finished products are not analogous to the material handling operations in the process of manufacture of such products. We, therefore, do not find any support to the Revenue's case from the Apex Court's decision in the aforecited case. 6. It i....