2015 (10) TMI 2398

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..... E/1483/2012 covers the period from November 2006 to August 2011. The total duty demand is about Rs. 7.44 crores and penalty under Section 11AC equal to the duty demanded has been imposed. 2.1 The appellant was clearing rocket fuel/propellant for use in launch vehicle/satellite projects by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Up to the year 2001, the appellant was clearing an item by name Unsymmetrical Di-Methyl Hydrazine (UDMH) without payment of duty. The exemption was claimed under Notification No.64/95-CE dated 16.3.1995 (Sl. No.7). From 2002 onwards, due to technological developments, ISRO asked the appellant to supply modified UDMH by simply mixing the same with bought out chemical called Hydrazine Hydrate (HH) in ratio of 7....

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....irely different. The Commissioner has dealt with this issue in paragraph 18 in one of the impugned orders dated 24.6.2010, and has said that the issue dealt with earlier was eligibility of UDMH and UH25 for exemption under Notification No.64/95 CE only. He has observed that eligibility or otherwise of the exemption on UDMH as intermediary product under the captive consumption exemption Notification No.67/95 was not considered. He observed that Department is not questioning the eligibility of UDMH or UH 25 for the benefit of Notification No.64/95 at all and he agrees that this issue has been settled. We agree that it is possible to treat both the issues as different. 3.1 It was submitted by the learned Sr. Counsel that by mixing UDMH of 7....

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....nufacture and  (iii) The activities that are mentioned in Third Schedule i.e., packing or repacking from bulk packs to retail packs. 25. As per the definition the term manufacture in the Central Excise Act, 1944, it can be understood that the processes that involve completion of a product is called as manufacture, which is almost equal to the definitions given in the standard dictionaries as mentioned above. But, goods come out of the activity of manufacture, also become excisable goods to attract levy of central excise duty, because all goods are not under levy of excise. Conversely, all the activities that amount to manufacture under Central Excise law are not a real manufacture in view of the (2) & (3) en....

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.... 4. Admittedly UH25 is manufactured by mixing 75% of UDMH and 25% of HH in mixing container and thereafter thoroughly stirred for 90 minutes to meet the required density and specifications. According to the decision of the Honble Supreme Court, to call a process as manufacture it should result in emergence of a new product with distinct name, character and use. In this case there is no doubt that ISRO has given a new name UH25. The question that arises is whether it has attained a different character and is for a different use. As regards use, there is no dispute that both UDMH and HH25 are used for the same purpose viz., as a rocket propellant or fuel. The next question that arises is whether it has attained a different character. There i....