9911796707
TMI Blog1987 (7) TMI 260X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ef, are that M/s. United Glass ('the assessee') manufacture Glass and Glassware at their factory situated at Bangalore. They supply empty glass bottles to M/s. H.M.M. Ltd. ('the customer') who are situated nearby. The customer uses these bottles for packing their product 'HORLICKS' therein. The customer sent empty cardboard cartons to the assessee. These cartons belonged to the customer and were supplied free of cost to the assessee. The cartons were printed with the customer's legend "Horlicks the great Nourisher, made in India by H.M.M. Ltd.". The assessee placed empty glass bottles in the cartons and despatched the same to the customer without closing the lids of the cartons. 3. Section 4(4)(d)(i) of the Central Excises and Salt A ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... The proceedings were then taken before the Appellate Collector. As time passed, further price lists were filed by the assessee. They gave rise to the same type of dispute. The various proceedings have ultimately culminated into the present three appeals of the department, three corresponding cross-objections of the assessee and one independent appeal of the assessee. The assessee's independent appeal No. E-2620/86-A and the assessee's cross-objection No. E-24/87-A are really a duplication of each other. 7. The department's case is that the full cost of carton at Rs. 442/- per thousand bottles should be added in the assessable value. The assessee's case is that there should be no addition on account of the cost of packing at all. The ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... mpty glass bottles staked in their store room. The Supreme Court had held in their judgments in the case of Bombay Tyres International Ltd. - 1983 E.L.T. 1896 (S.C.) and Godfrey Phillips - 1985 (22) E.L.T. 306 (S.C.) that cost of packing necessitated solely by the consideration of safety of the goods during transport was not includible in the assessable value. In support of their case, the assessee relied on the following three High Court judgments :- (1) 1979 E.L.T. (J 468) (Bom.) - Ogale Glass Works Ltd. (2) 1979 E.L.T. (J 444) (Guj.) - Alembic Glass Industries Ltd. (3) 1986 (24) E.L.T. 23 (Karnataka) - Alembic Glass Industries Ltd. M/s. H.M.M. Ltd., the customers, were allowed to intervene in the proceedings. They supported the asse ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... same carton. The learned representative of the department, in this connection, relied on the letter dated 15-2-1984 of M/s. H.M.M. Ltd. addressed to the Superintendent of Central Excise in which the said customer stated that the cartons, on receipt with empty bottles from the assessee, were "recycled for use as packing material for packed Horlicks." The assessee intervened to say that the cartons were so recycled after six trips with empty bottles. The assessee, however, admitted that M/s. H.M.M.'s letter did not say so. 10. We have given the matter our earnest consideration. Since excise is an indirect tax, uniformity in valuation and assessment of the goods ought to be ensured so that different manufacturers producing similar good ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... at would be the only just and proper course for us to follow so that there is no discrimination as between two competitors producing identical goods and supplying them to the same customer. Accordingly, following the ratio of the Karnataka High Court judgment, we hold that the cost of carton supplied free by the customer was not inclu-dible in the assessable value. 11. In the result, we dismiss the three appeals of the department and allow the corresponding three cross-objections as well as the independent appeal of the assessee in terms that the cost of customer's carton shall not be added to the assessable value of the glass bottles. We dispose of all the 7 matters in the above terms. Consequential relief should be granted to the a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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