TMI Blog1990 (1) TMI 70X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ise Tariff reads as follows : "Pipes and tubes (including blanks therefore) all sorts, whether rolled, forged, spun, cast, drawn, annealed, welded or extruded" The appellants are engaged in the manufacture of pipe fittings such as elbows, bends and reducers. They purchase steel pipes on payment of excise duty from indigenous producers from the open market and they also get steel tubes by way of import. The appellants cut the pipes and tubes into different sizes, give them shape and turn them into pipe fittings in their factories by heating in a furnace (at a temperature between 65 degrees C and 900 degrees C) hammering and pressing. The short question in this appeal is whether the pipe fittings so produced by the petitioners also fall u ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and tubes. It is also clear that it is of no consequence whether the pipes and tubes are manufactured by rolling, forging, spinning, castings, drawing, annealing, welding or extruding. It is true that initially pipes and tubes may be obtained from sheets, billets or bars by various processes, but the process of manufacture of pipes and tubes does not end there. In order to achieve fully the purpose for which the pipes and tubes are manufactured, it is necessary to manufacture smaller pieces of pipes and tubes and also to manufacture them in such a shape that they may be able to conduct liquids and gases, passing them through and across angles, turnings, corners and curves or regulating their flow in the manner required. Smaller pieces of pi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t that words and expressions describing an article in a tariff schedule should be construed in the senssxce in which they are understood in the trade by the dealer and the consumer. The Court held that Properzi Rods were only a species of wire rods. It pointed out: "To sum up the true position, the process of manufacture of a product and the end use to which it is put, cannot necessarily be determinative of the classification of that product under a fiscal schedule like the Central Excise Tariff. What is more important is whether the broad description of the article fits in with the expression used in the Tariff. The aluminium wire rods, whether obtained by the extrusion process, the conventional process or by Properzi process, are still ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tubes manufactured out of sheets, rods, bars, plates or billets and those turned out from larger pipes and tubes. In these circumstances it is difficult to say that pipe fittings, though they may have a distinctive name or badge of identification in the market, are not pipes and tubes. It is true that all pipes and tubes cannot be described as pipe fittings. But it would not be correct to say that pipe fittings are not pipes and tubes. They are only a species of pipes and tubes. The use of the words "all sorts" and the reference to the various processes by which the excisable item could be manufactured set out in the tariff entry are comprehensive enough to sweep within their fold the goods presently under consideration. 5. A certain amo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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