1985 (4) TMI 307

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.... any standards. 2. The Appellate Collector held that spent earth which comes in the course of soap manufacture was assessable to duty under item 68 of the central excise tariff. This spent earth is obtained when activated bleaching earth has gone through processes of soap manufacture in which it plays the role of removing the colour etc. from the oil to render it colourless. After a number of processes, the activated earth can no longer bleach or remove colour from the oil. This is when it loses its activity and is called spent earth. The Appellate Collector said that spent earth had a distinctive name, had different uses and was saleable. He found that spent earth was sold to manufacturers of cheap washing soap. 3. This order o....

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....in the spent earth is taken in the use of cheap washing soaps. This is true of many waste products and not just spent earth. 5. He argued that the demand was time-barred since it was issued after the time limit. They had made no misdeclaration or suppression of any kind. 6. The learned counsel for the department Mr. Khanna said that the spent earth had a distinct use. This was a by-product and by failing to mention it by declaring it to the central excise the factory was guilty of suppression. The central excise did not know anything about the spent earth. He referred to the tariff advice of the Central Board of Excise and Customs which said that spent earth which is used in the manufacture of soap is classifiable under tariff i....

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....less an end-product or a finished product. 8. He then quoted 1977 E.L.T. J 34 to say that it would be a case of charging double duty because the activated earth is a duty paid product, which have suffered duty under item 68. 9. The counsel also said that the show-cause notice did not say that there was clandestine removal. Therefore, this argument cannot be used in the order when no such charge was brought against them in the show-cause notice. He quoted in support 1983 E.L.T. 1199 Pyrites Phosphates and Chemicals case. 10. It is a fact that the activated earth is duty paid under item 68. There are gate passes in evidence and, indeed, we cannot see how the activated earth could have reached market without paying duty and i....

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....ch end-product is desired to have. Sometimes the manipulation or process is a good one; the processor manipulator is a skilful one; because of all these factors, the end-product is better than another similar end-product produced by a less skilful manufacturer or from inferior material. But in no case is the end-product a baser commodity than the material from which it is made; it is always better, more valuable, more finished. 13. In this case, we see the reverse of the above. The spent earth is a baser material than the activated earth which it was at the beginning of the soap manufacturing process. This is because it had lost the virtues it had as an activated earth. It can no longer remove colour from an oil. It is to be sold off ....