TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1993 (6) TMI 95
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....m the petitioner that the Deputy Collector of Customs (Preventive), West Bengal, Calcutta had been pleased to allow that petitioner to carry sawn wood processed in different shapes and sizes from India to Nepal through Panitanki L.C. station after observing necessary formalities. According to the petitioner, relying upon this assurance he entered into an agreement with a purchaser in Nepal for supply of 2000 cubic metres of sawn wood planks in sizes of 6 inches x 4 inches x 6 ft. The agreement provides that failure to supply the planks within four months from the date of the agreement would entail penal consequences. The petitioner obtained the sawn wood planks and sent them on trucks to Nepal through Panitanki L.C. On 30th March, 1993 the ....
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....export sawn timber. 5.It was finally contended by the petitioner that the Indo-Nepal Treaties of Trade, Transit, 1991 provided that the Government of India and Nepal would, on reciprocal basis, exempt from basic customs duties as well as quantitative restrictions, the import of such primary products as may be mutually agreed upon from each other. The protocol to the treaty includes timber as a primary product eligible for preferential treatment. It is contended that the treaty was binding on the respondent-authorities as government servants and they could not act in contravention thereof by refusing to allow the export of timber. 6.The respondents have contended that under Chapter XVI, Part I of the Export and Import Policy (1-4-92 - 31-3....
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....ents by stating that the treaty was in 1991 whereas the Export Policy was formulated in 1992, and that it was not argued by the petitioner that the treaty overrode local laws. 9.In my view, the petitioner is entitled to succeed in this application on the basis of his first submission. 10.Chapter XVI, Part I of the Export and Import Policy contains 7 categories of items which are prohibited and may not be exported at all. Item 7 of the list of prohibited items reads as follows : Wood and wood products in the form of logs, timber, stumps,"7. roots, barks, chips, powder, flakes, dust, pulp and charcoal." 11.There is no specific mention of planks in the description of the items. Chapter XVI, Part V of the Policy provides for items which may....
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....art V, Item 44 of the Export and Import Policy to mean "manufactured". 15.The definition equates manufacture with only those processes which result in manufacture. In other words, those processes which bring into being a new commodity would be included within the definition of manufacture. Therefore, manufacture cannot be equated with all processes. 16.This position has been recognised by the Supreme Court in the case of Union of India v. Delhi Cloth and General Mills, 1977 (1) E.L.T. (J 199) (S.C.) = AIR 1963 S.C. 791 : "According to the learned Counsel `manufacture' is complete as soon as by the application of one or more processes, the raw material undergoes some change. To say this is to equate `processing' to `manufacture' and for t....