TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (11) TMI 1195
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....4.02.2015 and 02.11.2017, covering the period April 2014 to September 2015 and October 2015 to March 2016, demanding duty of Rs.3,57,31,284/- and Rs.1,03,22,802/- respectively, along with interest and penalty. The proposals in the show cause notices were upheld vide OIO dated 03.02.2017 and 28.03.2018 along with equal penalty under Rule 25 of Central Excise Rules, 2002. Hence, these appeals. 2. Ms. Krati Singh, learned Counsel for the appellants submits that the Revenue's contention is incorrect and the formulations do not merit inclusion under Chapter Heading 3105 as the products are in liquid form and are packaged as per their volume (ml, ltr) and not as per mass/ quantity (gms, kg); they are not packed in the tablet form but were packed in plastic bottles. The issue stands settled by the case of Biostadt India Ltd. - 2022 (381) ELT 492 wherein the Department themselves argued that the Biozyme manufactured by the appellant therein and cleared in unit packs of 100 ml, 250 ml & 500 ml; Legal Meteorology Rules, 2011 prescribes that the declaration of quantity shall be expressed on the packaging in the unit of litres if the product is in liquid form; this was accepted in the....
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....oncessional rate of duty of 1% for the items under Chapter 31 if credit is not availed; the appellants have reversed the credit availed on the inputs and therefore are eligible for the concessional rate of duty; accordingly, the duty demand requires to be re-quantified; she also submits that the Department has adopted the value uniformly at the rate of 70% of the MRP in contravention of Rule 7 of CEVR, 2000 as the appellants cleared the formulations to its depots at a price of about 50% of the MRP all over India on stock-transfer basis after affixing MRP; she also submits that cum-duty benefit is applicable to the appellants; she also submits that as the duty is not chargeable, penalty and interest cannot be levied. She relies on the following cases: • Commissioner of C. Ex., Chandigarh-1 vs. Diplast Plastics Ltd. 2010 (257) E.L.T. 397 (P & H) • Hitech Constructions vs. CCE & ST- Ludhiana 2024 (1) TMI 776 - CESTAT CHANDIGARH • CCE, Chandigarh vs. JCBL Ltd. 2017 (6) TMI 422 CESTAT CHANDIGARH. • Chandrapur Magnet Wires (P) Ltd. vs. Collector of C. Excise, Nagpur 1996 (81) E.L.T. 3 (SC). • Hindustan Petroleum Corpn Ltd v....
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.... into smaller packings of 1000 ml, 500 ml, 180 ml, 90 ml and 30 ml and sell the same under their own brand name "Dhanzyme". In the absence of any Chapter Note in Chapter 31 of the Central Excise Tariff Schedule creating a legal fiction that repacking of bulk product into smaller packings amounted to manufacture, the aforesaid repacking activity of the appellants could not be held to be a process of manufacture within the meaning of Section 2(f) of the Central Excise Act inasmuch as that activity did not bring into existence any commodity different in character, use or commercial identity from the bulk product. Therefore liquid "Dhanzyme" was not excisable and the demand of duty on the product is not sustainable. 7.2 As regards the appellant's granular product "Dhanzyme", we note that the product was obtained by spraying liquid "Dhanzyme" over granules of Bentonite clay and that the granules so obtained were to be applied to the soil, unlike liquid "Dhanzyme" itself which was for direct application to the plant. The Bentonite clay granules with a spray of liquid "Dhanzyme" over them are not the same product as liquid "Dhanzyme" in the mind of the ultimate customer i.e., the....
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.... PGRs as follows : "Plant-growth regulators, other than nutrients, usually are organic compounds. They are either natural or synthetic compounds and are applied directly to a plant to alter its life processes or structure in some beneficial way so as to enhance yield, improve quality, or facilitate harvesting. Plant hormones, i.e., phytohormones, are plant-produced growth regulators and, therefore, are naturally occurring plant substances. Plant-growth regulators, however, apply to phytohormones as well as synthetic compounds." "Plant Physiology" (4th Edition) by Robert M. Devlin & Francis H. Witham gives the following description: - "Plant regulators are organic compounds other than nutrients that in small amounts promote, inhibit, or otherwise modify a physiological process in plants". J.C. Johnson's "Plant Growth Regulators and Herbicide Antagonists - Recent Advances" introduces PGRs as under: - "Plant growth regulators are compounds, mainly organic, other than nutrients which in relatively small amounts inhibit, promote or otherwise alter physiological plant processes". All the above literatures cited by ld. Advocate see....
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....he Revenue in Leeds Kem's case. We may, contextually, observe that the DR's reliance on the decision in Northern Minerals Pvt. Ltd. v. CCE - [1998 (102) E.L.T. 182] wherein 4.5% aqueous solution of Alpha-Naphthyl Acetic Acid (Trade name: "Dhanumon") was held to be a PGR is equally unhelpful to the Revenue in the instant case. 'Floramin' and 'Alpha-Naphthyl Acetic Acid' were chemically defined organic compounds. In the instant case, the Department appears to have had no case that the "Dhanzyme" brand products of the appellants were chemically defined organic compounds. 7.5 We would adopt the relevant reasonings of ours from the case of Leeds Kem for the purpose of deciding the classification of the present appellants' "Dhanzyme" on granules. We hold that the "Dhanzyme" on granules, cleared by the appellants during the material period was a biofertilizer classifiable under CSH 3101.00 chargeable to Nil rate of duty and no duty of excise was liable to be demanded in respect thereof. 7. We find that the appellants are engaged in mere dilution of the concentration of the seaweed concentrate procured by them from 42% to the desired percentage by adding water and prese....