2002 (9) TMI 200
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....lling of containers and repacking from bulk Backs to retail packs or the adoption of any other treatment to render the product marketable to the consumer, shall amount to "manufacture"." 2. In the order impugned in this appeal, the Commissioner has held that by application of these notes, the activities undertaken by the appellant before us, must be deemed to be manufacture, and demanded duty and imposed penalty on the appellant. 3. The appellant is a trader in textile chemicals. Paragraphs 2 and 3 of the Commissioner's order narrate the activities of the appellant, which are under consideration before us, as follows : "2. M/s. TC procures the orders from the customers through their marketing staff specifying the quantity....
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....gnee is also stencilled." 4. The question to be answered, therefore, is whether the activities of painting on the drums containing the textile chemicals in question, the name of the consignor (the appellant) and of the consignee constitutes any of the activities specified in the notes. 5. Among the various arguments that the counsel for the appellant raises, we will consider two. These are that merely printing on the drums the name and address of the consignor (appellant) and the consignee does not itself amount to labelling imparting information as to the nature of the product, its technical or other characteristics and none of these has been done. The second contention is that the activity in order to attract the note must be one wh....
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....r parchment, but a written description of the article upon which it is placed or made, as to its ownership, or character, or quality, or extent. A label is only intended to indicate the article contained in the bottle, package, or box to which it is affixed, and not to distinguish it from articles of the same general nature manufactured or sold by others, thus securing to the producer the benefits of any increased sale by reason of any peculiar excellence he may have given to it, as a trademark does." 8. Mere putting of the name and address on the container of the goods of the consignee and consignor does not in our opinion, amount to labelling as it is generally understood and therefore as to be denoted by the notes in question....
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....r 30 or 33. The intention behind the notes in these chapters appears to be to render liable to duty those processes which result in the product being sold to the consumer mentioned. Thus putting cosmetics into an attractive jar meant for retail use and placing on it a label containing a brand name enhanced the value of the cosmetics in measurement. In fact in many of these products, it is the container or label worth more than the cost of the contents. The position is however different in the case of the products falling in the chapter that we are not concerned with. In the vast majority of these products, the question of packing, labelling, repacking or relabelling or otherwise dealing with the products so as to render it marketable to "co....
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....ng of vaccine amounted to manufacture as envisaged in Section 2(f) of the Act. We have already held that labelling is not involved in the matter before us. The judgment of the Madras High Court in BHEL Ancillary Association v. CCE - 1990 (49) E.L.T. 58 has held that stencilling on the components manufactured by the members of the Association of parts such as quantity, volume, ancillary etc. given by BHEL to whom the goods were supplied, amounted to taxing the brand name. This decision therefore affords some support in the departmental representative's contention that putting the name of the buyer may amount to labelling. After all it cannot be denied that putting a brand name on product is a labelling. However, the judgment of the singl....
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