TMI Blog1983 (10) TMI 264X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e Collector held that although the products are assessable under Item 68 as claimed by the appellants, they should not be given exemption under Notification No. 55/75-C.E. which they also claim. The Assistant Collector held in his order that Yolk-O-Gold, Boon-O-Milk were patent medicines assessable under Item 14E but the Appellate Collector reversed this order and directed their assessments under Item 68. The dispute before us is only in respect of the refusal by the Appellate Collector to grant to the products the exemption under Notification No. 55/75-C.E. This exemption completely exempts excise duty of Item 68 on a number of specified goods, one of which is animal feed including compounded live-stock feed . The appellants claim in their appeal that the Appellate Collector was wrong when he denied them the exemption under Notification 55/75-C.E. and was also wrong in rejecting IS specifications on the ground that it was nowhere stated that mineral mixtures which were for supplementing animal feeds will be covered by the term `animal feed . He held that the products were meant to supplement animal feed and were, therefore, not themselves animal feed. Certificates produced from ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ion specifications on poultry and cattle feed report that it is a well-known fact that the process in a living organism depends upon the presence of various mineral sources in proportion. The general rations were deficient in minerals and it was essential that minerals should be provided in adequate quantities and requisite proportion to ensure optimum health and productivity in the animals and birds. 3. A judgment of the Gujarat High Court in Glaxo Laboratories v. State of Gujarat was also quoted in favour of their case by the appellants before the Appellate Collector. However, the Appellate Collector held that the judgment could not be applied to central excise notification on the ground that the entry in the sales-tax law included concentrate which, however, was absent in the central excise entry. The judgment of the High Court rested not on the presence of the word `concentrate in the sales-tax entry, but on the interpretation of the normal meaning of the description `animal feed . The Appellate Collector rejected certificates produced from M/s. Akbarallys, Onkar Agencies and others on the ground that they have been obtained after the issue had been raised by the department ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... inst the appeal. He pointed out the fact that the Indian Standard 9703 of 1980 described additives for animal feeds as being used usually in micro quantities and that they require careful handling and mixing. They are an ingredient or combination of ingredients added to the basic feed mix or parts thereof to fulfil a specific need. The same standard describes how a balanced animal feed is understood. It is applied to a diet, ration or feed having all known required nutrients in proper amount and proportion based upon recommendations of recognised authorities in the field of animal nutrition for a given set of physiological requirements of animals. It even specifies for the species for which it is intended and the functions which are aimed at such as maintenance and production. The standard describes complete feed as a nutritionally adequate feed for animals by specific formula compounded to be fed as the sole ration and which is capable of maintaining life and or promoting production without any additional substance being consumed except water. He also refers to a publication Encyclopaedia of Chemical Technology Second Edition by Kirk-Othomer. This book has tried to describe the wo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r kind of feed that will contribute to optimum growth, health and yield be it meat, milk, leather, hair, eggs or feathers. Every one knows the truism that a properly fed animal is the best profit yielding animal, the profit being in large measure proportionate to the scientific feeding that has gone into the upkeep of the animal. 7. For its proper growth and health, an animal needs various nutrients like the minerals we are talking about. It needs vitamins which are organic compounds; it needs proteins, fats, carbohydrates, calcium, metals; it even needs roughages. The last are largely indigestible fibres whose purpose is as propellants of refuse or rejected waste matter from the body, a function essential to good body rythm cycle and therefore health. The feed as we have seen from the authorities must not be merely health giving and nutritive, it must also be hunger satisfying. For this, the feed must contain sufficient bulk. Bulk is useful not merely to satisfy and quell the pangs of hunger but also to produce enough sediment or refuse which, when expelled by the peristalsis of the alimentary tract, carry with them the toxins and other harmful substances which the body does no ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tc. etc. that form the total feed which an animal must feed upon, if it is to be satisfied. From this it is easy to see that for a substance to be an animal feed it is not enough for it to be beneficial in one or more aspects because it may supply a mineral deficiency or a vitamin deficiency or protein deficiency or any other kind of deficiency. Understood in its modern sense an animal feed must be as complete as possible in all respects. For the same reason, a feed which supplies only bulk and merely fills the belly of the animal but lacks nourishment value or does not supply the animals need for vitamins and minerals and so on and which in the immediate present may satisfy the hunger of the animal, can, by its deficiency, induce in the animal a proneness to diseases or a susceptibility to infections which may eventually cost the owner dearly. 9. The appellants have referred to a number of authorities such as the ISI 1664 of 1968 which is a standard for mineral mixtures for supplementing cattle feeds. Then there are Standard 1713 of 1960 for decorticated groundnut oil cake or as livestock feed; Indian Standard 5470 of 1969 for di-calcium phosphate animal feed grade. But there ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s and vitamins are as a rule given in the daily feed because, when the animal feeds as it should feed, the best conditions are created in its daily system for the absorption of the minerals and vitamins. We are unable to accept the restricted meaning that the appellants give to the words animal feed when they say that anything that is fed to the animal for its growth, sustenance, production, yield is an animal feed. We agree that the mineral supplements are indeed part of the animal feed but these supplements are not by themselves animal feed as one would understand animal feed . It is a fact that Aries Agro-Vet describe their goods as mineral feed supplements, but we do not think that this by itself should tell against them. We think, however, that the right direction is the one in which an animal feed is understood to be a complete feed or as complete a feed as such feeds can be made to be by human ingenuity; and that feed can never be only one or another of the various ingredients, elements, substances, that an animal needs in a balanced feed. 11. We agree with the Appellate Collector and with the learned Counsel for the department that the judgment of the Gujarat High Cou ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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