1994 (9) TMI 71

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....the Horlicks itself is a finished product and ready for consumption when it reaches the bottling plant. As such the metal cap cannot be held to be a component part to the finished product of Horlicks, so that it can be held to be "excisable goods" covered by Notification No. 201/79-C.E. On that finding, the order passed by the Collector (Appeals) was set aside. The Collector (Appeals) had held that screw cap used for the container of the Horlicks was very much an input and a component part, because without the screw cap, the prepared and preserved food like Horlicks cannot be packed into unit containers for purpose of sale. A direction had also been given by the Collector (Appeals) to allow the credit on account of duty paid on the screw ca....

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....ant in view of the aforesaid notification claimed that the metal screw caps which are used on the bottles that contain the product Horlicks are component parts to the Horlicks and therefore shall be deemed to qualify for the exemption under the said Notification. In support of the said stand reference was also made to Item No. IB CET, the relevant part whereof is :- "Prepared or preserved foods put up in unit containers and ordinarily intended for sale including preparations of vegetables, fruits, milk, cereals, flowers, starch, birds, eggs, meat, meat offals, animal blood, fish, crustaceans or molluscs, not elsewhere specified." According to the appellants, the expression put up in "unit containers" makes the Horlicks an excisable ar....

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....re of which any goods falling under Item No. 68 of the First Schedule of the Act had been used as raw material or component parts, from so much of the duty of the excise leviable thereon as was equivalent to the duty of excise already paid on the inputs. Now the question which has to be determined is as to whether the screw caps can be held to be component parts? When Item IB under which the product falls says, prepared or preserved foods put up in unit containers and ordinarily intended for sale, then for becoming an excisable article, Horlicks must be put in containers, ready for sale. In this background, can it be said that only the Horlicks, which can be held to be the prepared and preserved food was intended to be covered by Item No. I....