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TMI Blog1984 (6) TMI 233X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... xcise, Hyderabad was not proper, legal etc. etc. It, therefore, wanted, by exercising its power under section 36(2) of the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944, to set aside the order-in-appeal and restore the Assistant Collector, Central Excise, Guntur s order. 2. The dispute was whether hydrogenated rice bran oil with melting point 52oC and unfit for human consumption was assessable under item 12 or under item 68, CET. The Asstt. Collector held item 68 was correct but the Appellate Collector over-ruled him saying item 12 was correct. The Govt. of India thought item 68 was correct and so it gave the notice under section 36(2). 3. The matter was argued before this Tribunal on 1-6-1984. The learned Counsel for the Government argued that ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 68 was the only heading that would take it in. 5. The factory s Counsel argued that the Gujarat High Court decision was given when only items 13 and 68 were presented before it. The choice was only between these two: and there can be no two opinions that 68 was preferable to 13 for an oil hardened beyond 40oC. Here we have item 12, the place of origin of the oil. Till the oil leaves its rightful home because of reasons that compel it to do so, it must remain there. We have to remember that item 68 is only a residuary item, a heading that specifies nothing. All other goods, not elsewhere specified is no description at all. 6. There is much persuasive logic in the learned Counsel s arguments. But we are chiefly led to the conclusio ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t is made. The only difference that hardening with hydrogenation will impart is better odour, keeping qualities, ease of handling and so on. Chemically, the two are identical. 7. We think that item 12 can cover hardened oil except the kind that is attracted into the orbit of item 13. The item 12 covers all sorts of vegetable non-essential oils. We think that whatever the sort i.e. whether solid or liquid, among other things, a vegetable non-essential oil must be assessed under item 12. It is not for nothing that the solidified tallow is also known as hardened technical oil, which in truth it is. The tallow is nothing but hardened oil, just as the solid ghee is nothing but the liquid ghee. One can look at it from the other end : there w ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... mer months. But there is no departmental objection to assessing coconut oil under item 12, regardless that in winter, even in the South, it can be solid. And the people who deal in oils of this kind will, if a consumer asks for coconut oil, give the solid substance as readily as the liquid one. Nobody will say this is solid, and hence cannot be oil . Both the oil and the fat (solid) are accepted as coconut oil without any distinction by people in trade, who sell it and by the common people who consume it. 10. Item 13 defines a vegetable product as a vegetable oil or fat which, by itself or in admixture with any other substance, has by hydrogenation or by any other process been hardened for human consumption. There is a fallacy in this ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y do not cease to be edible. This line is by no means a clear one. Margarine vegetable butter is hardened to about 37C or 38C melting points but shortening, are hardened somewhat higher than this. The hydrogenation merely raises the melting point of the oil: as long as the melting point is within manageable limits, the human system can handle the oil. To assess under item 13, only such oil which have been hardened but not hardened too high to be consumed by human beings is a well-known practice and is based on the tariff definitions. 13. It does not follow, however, that item 12 will take in only liquid oils. We have discussed that oils can be liquid or solid for different reasons such as hydrogenation, chilling; they can be made semi so ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... o change. The new character, solidity is not a different character, because the same solid oil will easily become liquid on heat being applied. The hydrogenation, we have seen, does not change its character any more than the cold of winter which solidifies the coconut oil, changes its character. And the new use is not really a new one, because the oil and the fat being the same, it is not as if the fat that emerged from the oil is so radically different that it can never have anything in common with its source, the oil. Their uses are the same. The vegetable product (hardened oil) is used for cooking just as the unhardened oil. Superhardened oil may not be used for cooking but the oil and the superhardened fat can be used in various industr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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