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TMI Blog1970 (8) TMI 31X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... carry on business, at Rewari, of manufacturing kansi and brass utensils. For that purpose, they procure copper, tin and zinc. Kansi is prepared as an alloy of copper and tin, and brass as an alloy of copper and zinc. These alloys are prepared by melting the metals and mixing them together. These alloys are then converted into billets. These billets are thus of two kinds, viz., of kansi and of brass. These billets are then sent by the respondents to their agent who runs a rolling mill in Rewari, and the rolling mills roll the billets into uncut circles. Subsequently, these uncut circles are trimmed and, after further work on them, they are converted into utensils and sold as such in the market by the respondents. The appellant imposed excise ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tention raised on behalf of the appellant must be accepted. Under Section 3, all excisable goods set forth in the First Schedule, which are produced or manufactured in India, are made liable to excise duty at the rates mentioned in the Schedule. Item 26A-(2) clearly mentions the manufacture, amongst others, of circles in any form or size. There can be no dispute that what the rolling mills prepared by rolling the billets are circles in some form or the other and in different sizes. The contention that the uncut circles cannot be held to be circles mentioned in this item has, on the face of it, no force at all. Brij Mohan, the Karta of the respondent Hindu undivided family business, in his statement himself admitted that the billets are sent ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... these uncut circles are not known as circles. In fact, as we have indicated above, the evidence of Brij Mohan himself makes it clear that these are described as circles. The only other witness examined by the respondents was Mahabir Prasad who runs one of the rolling mills which do the work of converting billets into circles on behalf of the respondents. According to him, billets are converted into uncut circles which are known as penas. These uncut circles cannot be directly used for preparing the utensils. He added that they have to be converted into circles, implying that the uncut circles have to undergo a further change before they can be described as circles. In coss-examination, however, he admitted that it is correct that the shape ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... as "refined oil", and this "refined oil" falls within the description of "vegetable non-essential oils, all sorts, in or in relation to the manufacture of which any process is ordinarily carried on with the aid of power", and so is liable to excise duty under Item 12 of the First Schedule. The Court examined the process of manufacture of Vanaspati and found that vegetable non-essential oils as obtained by crushing containing the impurities were first produced as raw vegetable non-essential oils. They had then to undergo the process of refining which consisted of adding an aqueous solution of an alkali which will combine with the free fatty acids to form a soap and settle down with it a large amount of suspended and mucilaginous matter; aft ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... aining only a percentage of carbondioxide and could not, therefore, be held to be carbondioxide alone which could be subjected to excise duty under Item 14-H of the First Schedule. 7. Dr. Barlingay, relying on these two decisions of this Court, urged a further point that, when the billets were rolled into circles, no process of manufacture was carried out and, consequently, excise duty could not be charged under Item 26-A which imposes the liability only when goods like circles are manufactured. Reliance was placed on the interpretation of the word "manufacture" given in both the cases where it was indicated that manufacture implies the bringing into existence of a new substance known to the market. According to the respondents, the conver ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... is Court, the articles mentioned in the relevant items of the First Schedule were never held to have come into existence, so that the completed product, which was liable to exise duty under the First Schedule, was never produced by any process. In the case before us, circles in any form are envisaged as the completed product produced by manufacture which are subjected to excise duty. The process of conversion of billets into circles was described by the legislature itself as manufacture of circles. 8. A second aspect is that, so far as the respondents are concerned, they start the process of manufacture of utensils by initially talking metals in crude form as raw materials. Two different kinds of metals in each case are mixed together to p ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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