TMI Blog1988 (1) TMI 54X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... order No. S-49/1482/82R date of issue 31.12.1982 and the other order No. S-49/900/83R date of issue 20.10.1983. The goods were described as Silicone Oil, Dow Corning (R) 200 Fluid 350C3, and Silicone Fluid SF-96-350 CST, the importers M/s. CEAT Tyres. In both the orders, the Collector (Appeals) assessed the goods to customs duty under Chapter 39 of the Customs tariff. 2. The learned counsel for M/s. CEAT Tyres, Mr. Lakshmi Kumaran said that this assessment was wrong, because the Silicone Fluid was used as a mould release agent by the importers during the manufacture of tyres. Apart from the fact that the oil had no resinous or plastic nature, its use was as a mould release agent, a lubricating activity, to prevent the moulded tyre from a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... se in order to decide this matter only scientific and technological facts are relevant. Even the learned arguments advanced by the two sides regarding the scope of the words and phrases employed in the chapter are not going to help us much, the facts being known and these being that silicones are a product of polymerisation and are produced in a chemical synthesis which results in radical groups being attached to silicon atoms by silicon-carbon bends. 6. The importers and their learned counsel contend that though silicone may be a polymerisation product, it has undergone a low degree of polymerisation and, therefore, has not acquired the resinous character or plasticity of silicone resins. By reason of this low degree of polymerisation, M ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... within heading 27.10 or 34.03, as the case may be; silicone oil was not considered as covered by Chapter 39. They also referred to CCCN heading 34.03 which reads : LUBRICATING PREPARATIONS, AND PREPARATIONS OF A KIND USED FOR OIL OR GREASE TREATMENT OF TEXTILES, LEATHER OR OTHER MATERIALS, BUT NOT INCLUDING PREPARATION CONTAINING 70% OR MORE BY WEIGHT OF PETROLEUM OIL OR OF OILS OBTAINED FROM BITUMINOUS MINERALS According to their interpretation, mould release agents like the silicone oil they have imported, should fall under Chapter 34 as lubricating preparations. 8. The error of this argument is that silicone oil is not a lubricating preparation, but is itself a silicone fluid. It is true that it finds use as a lubricant/mould rele ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ils, greases, resins and rubber, to lubricating preparations containing silicone greases and oils have a significance that cannot be missed. The Nomenclature clearly distinguishes the primary silicone products like silicone oils, greases, resins from silicone-based preparation containing the primary products form like oils and greases. 11. We will get strong confirmation of the above if we refer to the Harmonised System heading 39.10. This Code is, of course, more elaborate and the heading is one for Silicones in Primary Forms, and the products in these forms include silicone oils, greases, resins and elastomers. The heading furthermore excludes lubricating preparations consisting of mixtures containing silicone greases and oils. These ar ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ers, although not covered by the definition of synthetic rubber in Chapter 40, have some extensibility which is not changed by high or low temperatures. This property renders them suitable for manufacture into washers or other packings for appliances submitted to high or low temperatures. An application in the medical field is the manufacture of automatic brain valves used in cases of hydrocephalus. The matter, I believe, is clear now and beyond any further need for disputation. The silicone oil may be a lubricant but it is a silicone and in that capacity, it is listed in Chapter 39; and furthermore it is also a polymerisation product produced by chemical synthesis, in a reaction that will satisfy the definition of Chapter 39 of the Custo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... oil in a fluid and for that reason falls in Silicones heading, not in silicones preparation heading. And though a low polymerisation product, there is nothing in the Indian tariff, the CCCN or the Harmonised Code to exclude or shut a silicone fluid out of Chapter 39. 14. A note of caution I think would be sufficient here. As someone said it would not do to bring into the tariff entry every member of the cast of the silicone tribe. The vastness can be understood when we remember that silicone finds uses in antithetical manners - as bending agents as well as parting agents; as lubricating preparation, as surfactants, as wetting agents, coatings and more uses than one can list. And as the Kirk-Othmer Encyclopaedia tells us, these polymers ca ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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