9911796707
TMI Blog1991 (2) TMI 237X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ise, Divn. Ill, Kalyan rejecting as inadmissible claims for refund filed by the appellants, herein, totally amounting to Rs. 2,82,354.33 holding that the goods manufactured by the appellants were excisable under T.I. 68 CET as goods not elsewhere specified in the Tariff. Facts in brief are that the appellants had filed the refund claims on their products, Natrin, Nodin and Bactin during the period March, 1983 to December, 1984 on the ground that the products do not fall under any Tariff Item of the Central Excise because the product cannot be considered as manufactured within the meaning of Section 2(f) of the Central Excises & Salt Act, 1944. They, further, explained in the refund claim that Bi-inoculants, such as, Natrin, Nodin, Bactin an ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... by them is a natural process. They relied upon the Bombay High Court decision in the case of Commissioner of Sales Tax v. Nhava Poultry Farm -1985 (58) STC 102 holding that the activity of feeding one day old chicks and rearing them to desirable maturity of consumable table birds in poultry farm, and with a view to obtain eggs does not amount to manufacture. The ratio of the decision, according to the appellants, is applicable for Central Excise purposes also as it is with reference to the meaning of 'manufacture' in the general sense because as a result of multiplication of micro-organisms no new product emerges and hence no manufacture is involved. The following decisions of the Supreme Court on the above lines to say that manufacture re ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... acture had been gone into in detail and it was held that transformation of a product into a different commercial commodity is sufficient to constitute manufacture under Section 2(f) of Central Excises & Salt Act, 1944. The Ld. D.R. also pointed out that the appellants themselves had recognised the product as excisable as evidenced by the classification list filed by them for it under Item 68 CET. 4. The submissions, made by the Ld. Counsel and the Ld. D.R., have been carefully considered. The question is whether the preparation of these products Natrin, Nodin, Bactin and mixed variety is the result of a process amounting to manufacture or not. On a perusal of the material on record, it is seen that the starting point is the separation of t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nsisting of biotic and a biotic factors which is the starting material. Even, according to the literature on the products available on record, the goods are marketed as products to maintain proper plant growth to improve soil fertility and the quality of the soil and to make-up for depletion of the nitrogenous compounds in the soil. The appellants' argument that there is no process of manufacture involved proceeds from the stage of culturing and multiplication of the micro-organisms. But the earlier stage of isolating the useful microbes from the soil as an ecosystem from among the biotic and abiotic factors contained in the soil, will itself be the starting point of the whole process which is, thereafter, followed by the culturing of the m ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he finished product. It is also seen from the literature relating to the products that they are in the nature of fertilizers. This Tribunal had occasion to refer to certain authorities on fertilizers in its decision in the case of Radhika Vitamalt Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi v. Collector of C. Ex., Meerut -1985 (21) E.L.T. 920 (Tri.). According to the Wealth of India, the term 'fertilizer' is ordinarily applied to materials which are added to soils to increase the supply of plant nutrients and thereby enhance fertility of the soil. In the Indian Standards Glossary of Terms used in fertilizer trade and industry (IS : 1304-1980), fertilizer is defined as a material, organic or inorganic, natural or synthetic, which supplies one or more of the chemic ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... being effectively met by the appellants, who have merely stated that yeast and the said products are of different classes, the former being of mould category and the letter of the bacteria category. This however, does not show how, if yeast is classified as a manufactured product under Item 68 CET, the appellants' product cannot be so classified merely on the basis that the appellants' products are of the bacteria category. In fact, in the literature relating to the product 'bactin', it is stated that the contents are, among other things, fungi which will include yeast. Therefore, from a totality of the circumstances, it is to be held that the process of producing the various branded products as soil inoculants from the starting point of s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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