2003 (12) TMI 63

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....ld rolled strips. It is not in dispute that the hot rolled strips had borne excise duty. The cold rolled strips, according to ITCO were only those strips which emerged after the hot rolled strips had been processed and the edges sheared and slit according to the specifications of the customer. ITCO, therefore, paid the excise duty on cold rolled strips according to its definition. 2.The Revenue, however, raised the demand on ITCO on the basis that cold rolled strips meant and included unsheared and unslit strips. The demand was challenged by ITCO by way of revision under the Act as it then stood. ITCO raised the issue that cold rolled strip should be understood as an item which is saleable and treated as completed manufactured product. A....

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....submitted that the process of manufacture was not complete until the process of slitting and cutting had been carried out and accordingly until that stage the goods were not manufactured and were not excisable. The learned Single Judge rejected the submission of the appellant by holding that there was no specific definition of strip in the relevant tariff heading in the Schedule to the Act as it then stood. Therefore, the moment the strips as known in the commercial world came into existence, duty was leviable. The Court was of the view that it could not be said that the strips had come into existence only after the same had been trimmed and sheared to the required length. The reasoning of the Revisional Authority on the issue of marketabil....

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....cold rolled strips out of hot rolled strips did not amount to manufacture and that there was no new commodity which could be subjected to excise. The appellant is allowed to raise this additional point in view of the fact that the decision of this Court in Steel Strips (supra) as well as the decisions of the Tribunal reported in [1998 (99) E.L.T. 120; 2001 (129) E.L.T. 672 and 2002 (141) E.L.T. 725] were all subsequent to the impugned decision of the High Court. Besides, the demand relates to 1968 and 1969 and since no facts which are not on record are sought to be urged by the appellant, it would be appropriate to dispose of the matter once and for all at this stage. 7.The tariff item at the relevant time was as follows :- "26AA: Iro....