TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2020 (2) TMI 1450
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.... raw fish (shrimps & squid) supplied by its customers, being merchant exporters. Appeal No. ST/20887/2014 is treated as the lead case and the page numbers etc. mentioned henceforth, are of the said appeal. The raw fish after a series of manufacturing processes is frozen and packed. The process involved is as follows :- Receiving De-icing Weighing Peeling Grading Cleaning (Soaking, Feeding, Cooking, Chilling, De-watering) Precooling Individual quick freezing Glazing Glaze hardening Weigh for unit packs Fill in polybags Metal detector Pack in master cartons Outer labelling Freezer storage (Below - 18°C) Shipment/House Stuffing The demand of Service Tax was confirmed under the catego....
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.... the trade parlance viz; the purchase statements, raw material evaluation report, certificate of export, commercial invoice and health certificate are produced at the time of hearing. The documents show that the input would fall under CETH 0306 17, whereas; the final output under CETH 1605 21 and CETH 1605 29. The cooking and other process for preservation of the raw material (falling under Chapter 3) would take it to Chapter 16 and therefore the transformation of the raw material into a commercially different article is evident. 3.4 From the process flow chart it is evident that there is further packing and labelling activity undertaken, post the series of activities to make the fish/squid readily eatable and to preserve the same. ....
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....s wholly misplaced. The said decision was rendered in the context of the Karnataka Sales Tax Act, where there is no definition of the term manufacture. In the case of the Central Excise Act, 1944, Section 2(f) takes in any process incidental and ancillary to the completion of a product or process as amounting to manufacture. Moreover, the Chapter Note 3 to Chapter 16 of the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985, treats even packing, labelling, repacking etc. as amounting to manufacture. A Bench of this Tribunal in the case of M/s. The Canning Industries, Cochin Ltd. v. Commissioner of Central Excise and Customs, Calicut, vide Final Order No. 20099-20102/2020, dated 11-2-2020, held that the activity of processing and packing of marine products for....
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....he appellant is processing marine products on behalf of their clients and all the processes carried out by the appellant have been informed to the Department by the appellant vide its letter dated 6-1-2006 in reply to the summons issued by the Department. The details of the processes explained by the appellant are reproduced herein below :- "Raw materials procured by our clients are freshly caught raw materials like shrimps, cuttlefish, squids and octopus. The raw material on arrival at our unit is thoroughly washed with chlorinated water, graded and stored in insulated containers well iced to prevent dehydration, discolouration and deterioration. The ice used is a preservative and will act as a protective measure to avoid spoilage....
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.... point out that Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Govt. of India, has included sea food processing unit as manufacturing units under Meat Product (Amendment) Order, 2005. As such, we would like to submit that ours is a production unit and we carry out production or processing with inputs shown above for and on behalf of our client. So we earnestly would like to bring your kind notice that as per the latest amendments of the notification of Service Tax we do not come under the purview of Service Tax and it may not be made applicable in us." Besides this, it is relevant to examine the definition of manufacture as provided in Section 2(f) which is reproduced herein below :- Section 2(f) : Manufacture includes a....
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....nded to render such products marketable to consumers. Therefore the appellant's activity falls under the definition of manufacture and not as taxable service falling under BAS. Both the authorities have not properly appreciated the processes explained by the appellant vis-a-vis the Chapter Note 3 of Chapter 16 CETA, 1985. Further we find that the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Sterling Foods v. State of Karnataka and another [1986 (26) E.L.T. 3 (S.C.)] relied upon by the Department is not applicable in the facts and circumstances of the case because the said decision was in relation to Sales Tax and not relating to Central Excise or the Service Tax. We have also examined the definition of BAS and we find that the activities ca....