Home Case Index All Cases Central Excise Central Excise + AT Central Excise - 2018 (7) TMI AT This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2018 (7) TMI 685 - AT - Central ExciseClassification of manufactured goods - choco-dipped wafer layers and wafer covered with delicious chocolate layer - According to the appellant these goods are classifiable under Central Excise tariff heading 1905-32-19, while the Department wants to classify it under tariff heading 1905-32-11 - whether the classification can be based on the Statutory definition in another law viz., Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 which describes standards for a product to be sold as chocolate? - Held that:- This issue is no longer res integra as Hon’ble Apex Court in the case of Commissioner of Central Excise, New Delhi Vs. Connaught Plaza Restaurant (P) Ltd [2012 (12) TMI 149 - SUPREME COURT] has held that the definition under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act cannot be utilized to decide the tariff classification - also, the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, through its section 97 has appealed 8 acts including the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954, which the appellant sought to rely upon. Even otherwise, the definition under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act cannot be relied upon to decide the classification under Excise Tariff. Whether the material in question is chocolate or cocoa? - Held that:- As far as the classification of the material in question is concerned, Chapter 19 does not deal with the definition of chocolate although it refers to wafers containing chocolate and other wafers. Chocolate is defined in the explanatory notes to HSN in 18.06 - neither it mandates to have cocobutter in the mixture for it to be chocolate nor is there any prohibition on the use of vegetable fat other than coco-butter in the mixture for the material to be classified as chocolate. Thus, the material in question is classifiable as chocolate. Whether the wafers can be said to be containing chocolate if the chocolate is only present between the two thin layers and not integrated into the wafer itself? - Held that:- It is not necessary that a wafer to be called so, has to consist of only one layer. What the appellant is selling and what is sought to be classified is a wafer containing more than one layer. It is never in dispute that what they are selling are wafers and that they contain cocoa and other ingredients. There is nothing in the Central Excise Tariff or in the HSN which mandates the chocolate to be incorporated in the batter of the wafer or into any particular layer. The products manufactured by the appellant are classifiable under 1905-32-11 - appeal dismissed - decided against appellant.
|