2016 (6) TMI 1055

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....minated wrapper. The appellant in their own factory produce the printed wrappers by printing a plain BOPP film and then laminating it with plain polyester film. Some of these printed laminated wrappers are consumed by the appellants captively and some produce is cleared to the contract manufacturing units of the appellant on payment of excise duty. The appellants were availing cenvat credit on the excise duty paid in respect of the inputs for printed laminated sheets. The Revenue was of the view that since the printing and laminating of a plain Polyester film does  not amount to manufacture, no excise duty was payable on the printed wrappers cleared by the appellant to their contract manufacturing units. Therefore, in the light of the ....

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....prises - 2013 (288) ELT 247 (Tri.) which has been affirmed by the Hon'ble High Court reported in 2013 (294) ELT 203 (Bom.) 4.  On the other hand, learned AR reiterated the findings in the impugned order. 5.  Heard both sides and considered the submissions. 6.  Short issue before us is that whether the activity of printing/laminating of BOPP films which were used as laminated wrapper for packing of biscuits by the appellant shall amount to manufacture or not? Similar issue came up before the apex court in the case of Fitrite Packers (supra) wherein this Tribunal has held as under : - (i)      Whether the goods in question, i.e., printed GI paper are classifiable under Chapter Heading ....

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....iscussed above falls into four neat categories. (1)     Where the goods remain exactly the same even after a particular process, there is obviously no manufacture involved. Processes which remove foreign matter from goods complete in themselves and/or processes which clean goods that are complete in themselves fall within this category. (2)     Where the goods remain essentially the same after the particular process, again there can be no manufacture. This is for the reason that the original article continues as such despite the said process and the changes brought about by the said process. (3)     Where the goods are transformed into something different....

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....t of the said particular company/customer. The printing, therefore, is not merely a value addition but has now been transformed from general wrapping paper to special wrapping paper. In that sense, end use has positively been changed as a result of printing process undertaken by the assessee. We are, therefore, of the opinion that the process of aforesaid particular kind of printing has resulted into a product, i.e., paper with distinct character and use of its own which it did not bear earlier. Thus, the 'test of no commercial user without further process' would be applied as explained in paragraph 20 of Servo-Med Industries (supra). The aforesaid paragraph is extracted hereunder. "20. In Brakes India Ltd. v. Superintendent o....