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TMI Blog1988 (5) TMI 192X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... th the cases. The appellants, M/s. Standard Industrial Engineering made what the Central Excise say were goods viz. purlins, trusses, rafters bracings etc. from MS plates, channels, angles, rounds, supplied to them by another person. The department say that the trusses, purlins, bracings were all goods assessable under Item 66, because they were fabricated from the angles, MS plates, channels etc. and that in the fabrication, the finished goods have come to acquire new names, characters and uses and that the processing constituted a manufacture within the meaning of Section 2(f) of the Central Excises and Salt Act. 3. At the hearing, the learned counsel for M/s. Standard Industrial Engineering argued that the Tribunal had already decided ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the measurements required for the planned structure. The Collector and the Additional Collector both say that these were made to intricate and- complicated drawings, which may well be. There would certainty be drawings, specifications etc., because you cannot simply take an angle or a channel and a sheet made in the steel factory and start applying your band-saw cutting machine to them, and fix them hugger mugger every which way, because that is the most eminent way adapted to producing a cut channel or a sheet that fits nowhere. If a shed or structure of a given size is to be set up and you need purlins, trusses for the roof, you will fully well have to measure before cutting or drilling, or whatever you do, if you want the cut, channels a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ble item of the Central Excise Tariff. In the new Harmonised Tariff there are even more items which would normally be fixed permanently to the earth, or which arise in their excisable identifiable form only after they have become firmly entrenched in the earth. 8. There was said to have been transformation of the goods, otherwise Steel Authority of India would not have got their jobs done by paying approximately Rs. 1500/- per tonne as job charges over and above the cost of transportation to go from Vijayawada. In this argument supposed to mean that whenever a cost of Rs. 1500/- per tonne is incurred in a job work, and it entails a transportation of 400 kms, there is a transformation of the raw materials? The adjudicator does not really p ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... no one will sell, and still less will anyone buy, a truss or a purlin. But there will be plenty of sellers and buyers of channels, angles, sheets, sections, to make trusses, purlins, rafters with. 10. The learned counsel for the department read paragraph 5.6 of the Additional Collector s Order in which he records that the cost of labour alone was Rs. 75 lacs. This proves nothing. It may cost Rs. 75 lacs or twice that amount depending on how much work was done, and that much work had to be done is not in any manner of doubt. But we are not on the subject of how much work was done, but on whether these people have produced goods liable to be charged to duty under Item 68. 11. The learned counsel also said that in paragraph 5.4 of the Addi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... gone to the site and seen the trusses, purlins, rafters, etc. in the structure, they would have seen the original steel products, angles, rounds, channels etc. etc., but fitted in predetermined places allotted to them by the builder and which they were able to fill and occupy by reason of the sizing and treatment they received at the hands of these appellants. 13. Just one more point and I shall be done. The original authorities say that the items i.e. the purlins, trusses, etc. made out of the inputs constitute manufacture within the meaning of Section 2(f) of Central Excises and Salt Act attracting levy under Item 68. What meaning? Section 2(f) says not one word about any meaning. It not say that when materials are taken and sized to f ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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