1989 (9) TMI 102 - SC - Central Excise

Whether in input of Sodium Sulphate in the manufacture of paper would cease to be a "Raw-Material" by reason alone of the fact that in the course of the chemical reactions this ingredient is consumed and burnt-up?

Held that:- One of the valid tests, in our opinion, could be that the ingredient should be so essential for the chemical processes cluminating in the emergence of the desired end-product, that having regard to its importance in and indispensability for the process, it could be said that its very consumption on burning-up is its quality and value as raw-material. In such a case, the relevant test is not its presence in the end-product, but the dependence of the end-product for its essential presence at the delivery end of the process. The ingredient goes into the making of the end-product in the sense that without its absence the presence of the end-product, as such, is rendered impossible. This quality should coalesce with the requirement that its utilisation is in the manufacturing process as distinct from the manufacturing apparatus.

No substance in the contention of Sri Ganguly that the process in which the Sodium Sulphate was used, was anterior to and at one stage removed from the actual manufacture of paper. Thus the Tribunal was right in its conclusion that Sodium Sulphate was used in the manufacture of papers as "Raw-Material" within the meaning of the Notification No. 105/82-C.E., dated 28-1-1982. Appeal dismissed.