TMI Blog2001 (11) TMI 15X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e incentives for encouraging investment in plant and machinery used for the manufacture or production of the things or articles enumerated in the relevant Schedule. - We, therefore, answer the question referred to us in favour of the assessee and against the Revenue. - - - - - Dated:- 19-11-2001 - Judge(s) : R. JAYASIMHA BABU., A. K. RAJAN. JUDGMENT The judgment of the court was delivered by R. JAYASIMHA BABU J.-The assessee is engaged in the business of manufacture and fitting of bus and truck bodies. It undertakes that work on the chassis with the engine and controls brought to it by its customers. What rolls out at the end of that process is a commercial vehicle, complete in all respects, though the assessee is not the manufa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a provision, which is obviously meant to encourage industries to instal new plant and machinery, where such plant and machinery is utilised for the manufacture or processing of articles or goods. The ownership of the industry is not the material factor. It is the bringing into existence of the manufactured article with the aid of plant and machinery that is material. Such manufacturing activity is required to be carried out by an industrial undertaking. The two things are interconnected. That the object of section 32A is to encourage new investment in industries engaged in the manufacture or production of any of the articles or things mentioned in the Ninth Schedule is evident from the section itself. That Schedule, which was part of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... pon the intended purpose for which the vehicle is to be used. Section 32A does not require that the ownership of the whole of the product that emerges after the manufacturing activity carried out by the assessee should belong to the assessee. There is no requirement that in the case of commercial vehicles the chassis on which the body is built should belong to the manufacturer of the body before such a manufacturer can claim the benefit of investment allowance in respect of machinery installed for building the bodies. If a manufacturer of the chassis of the vehicle itself builds the body on that chassis, such a manufacturer would undoubtedly be eligible for investment allowance not only on the machinery installed for the manufacture o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... is brought to the body builder by the customer, is clearly engaged in the making of a major part of the commercial vehicle and what leaves the factory of the body builder is the whole commercial vehicle. The term "commercial vehicles" used in the Ninth Schedule is not to be understood as being applicable only to a commercial vehicle, which is complete in all respects. Any such construction would render the manufacturer of a chassis ineligible to be regarded as a manufacturer of commercial vehicles. Without the chassis there can be no commercial vehicle. It is the essential base and it is that chassis with the other things included therein, viz., the engine, the wheels, the steering mechanism, etc., that provides the mobility required in ord ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y installed by it and with reference to which investment allowance is claimed. It is also not in dispute that that machinery is used for the manufacture of bus bodies and such bus bodies are built on the chassis brought to it by its customers and after completion of that process what exits the manufacturing facility of the assessee is a complete commercial vehicle. Learned counsel for the assessee invited our attention to a decision of the Allahabad High Court in the case of Bajoria Halwasiya Service Station v. State of U. P. [1970] 26 STC 108, in which it was held that a bus body is not a spare part and that it is an article of manufacture sold as such. Learned counsel also invited our attention to the decision of the Supreme Court in t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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