TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2023 (6) TMI 423
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.... without payment of customs duty on 17.01.2011. The advance authorisation, on the strength of which the inputs were imported without customs duty, was specific to the condition that the petitioner must use those inputs for manufacture. 3. R1 sought details from the petitioner in regard to the operational/manufacturing activities that it carried out and the petitioner duly supplied the particulars called for. By a communication dated 15.09.2011, the stand of the petitioner was rejected, R1 being of the view that the items imported and ultimately exported were one and the same and there was no manufacturing activity involved that brought into existence a new product with a distinctive identity and name. 4. The petitioner took the matter further before the Deputy Director of Foreign Trade and Convener Norms Committee I, which confirmed communication dated 15.09.2011 by way of its communication dated 06.09.2013. As a consequence, the respondents raised a demand of customs duty and interest amounting to Rs. 20,04,068/- and Rs. 9,99,182/- which the petitioner states that it has paid under protest. 5. A further representation has also come to be rejected confirming the position that no....
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....ite-up dated 07.04.2011 elaborating on the process of manufacture setting out details of the processes such as fabrication of the body of the valve and the addition of components, like bonnet/yoke, flow closure elements, gaskets, fasteners, spindle and others to complete the assembling. These processes are not relevant as they would have been carried out at the end of the vendor abroad. 13. According to the petitioner, the imported valves are mounted with electric actuators, limit switches are fixed after fabrication and welding on to the imported valves to indicated the opening and closing fixture and they are, after re-assembly, tested, packed and shipped to the SEZ. 14. The common counter filed by the respondents does not dispute this factual position, proceeding instead on the basis that was no manufacture. In my considered view, neither in the impugned order nor in the counter have the respondents considered the specific question as to whether the processes carried on by the petitioner would tantamount to 'manufacture', in the right perspective. 15. The Foreign Trade Policy for the period 27.08.2009 to 31.03.2014 as relevant to the petitioner's case, in Chapter 8 deals with....
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....e agreed test standards, it may be necessary ***** additional measurement to provide baseline operational data. These extra readings shall be ***** by the Purchaser and agreed with the Supplier as part of the testing programmed. 13.5 If any equipment is found to be defective or fails to achieve the Performance Guarantees, the Supplier shall investigate the cause and undertake to rectify and replace, free of cost to the Purchaser, the defects in the equipment and prove the achievement of Performance Guarantees within a period of 30 (thirty) days from the date of such Equipment found defective or failing to achieve the Performance Guarantees and if the Supplier fails to prove the achievement of Performance Guarantees within the said period of 30 (thirty) days from the date of first Performance Guarantee Test, the Purchaser shall charge Liquidated Damages. However if any of the Performance parameters of Equipment and Components fall below the parameters as set out above, shall be liable for rejection, in addition to the Liquidated Damages so charged. 13.6 The Supplier shall be responsible and liable for the entire Scope of Equipment and Components and for achieving the performan....
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....on. 21. Referring to the word 'includes' they state, it is well settled that the word 'includes' is an inclusive definition and expands the meaning. See The Corporation of the City of Nagpur v. Its Employee (1960 2 S.C.R. 942) and Vasudev Ramchandra Shelat v. Pranlal Jayanand Thakar and Others (1975 1 S.C.R. 534). The words 'all other rights and interests' are words of widest amplitude. Section 4 also uses the words "ownership, possession, power or control of the Company in relation to the said undertakings". The words 'pertaining to' are not restrictive as mentioned hereinbefore.' 22. Thus, the fact that 'testing' of the goods is included in the ambit of 'manufacture' and since admittedly, such testing has been carried on by the petitioner, this would suffice to entitle it to its claim. In Commissioner of Central Excise, Hyderabad v. Detergents India Limited and Another (2015) 7 SCC 198 the Hon'ble Supreme Court considered the definition of 'related person' under the Central Excise Act, 1944. 23. In that context, they refer to the definition of related person which used the expressions 'means' and 'includes' stating that this, according to them, indicate....
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....of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Shri Hariprasad Shivshanker Shukla and Another v. Shri A.D. Divelkar and Others 1957 SCR 121 is an authority for the proposition that where a term has been defined in the statute, there is hardly any need for further scrutiny of the term and the statutory definition is itself to be scrupulously applied. The observation at paragraph 11 reads thus: '..... 11. There is no doubt that when the Act itself provides a dictionary for the words used, we must look into that dictionary first for an interpretation of the words used in the statute. We are not concerned with any presumed intention of the legislature; our task is to get at the intention as expressed in the statute.' 29. That apart, it is not necessary in all cases that the end product must be unrecognisable from the inputs that constitute it as long as the processes carried out would satisfy the statutory definition of 'manufacture', and the present case is an illustration in point. 30. Admittedly, there is a grey area in regard to whether at all the petitioner has added any components to the imported valves. While it has been consistently representing to the authorities that it has been fit....