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TMI Blog1990 (5) TMI 52X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sis. The assessment years involved are 1980-81 and 1981-82. 3. For the A.Y. 1980-81, the assessee claimed investment allowance u/s. 32A of the IT Act, 1961 (the Act) at Rs. 1,01,943 in respect of the new plant and machinery installed at Veraval at Rs. 41,454 and at Kandla project at Rs. 3,66,315. A similar claim was made for A.Y. 1981-82 for Rs. 22,772 in respect of plant and machinery installed at Kandla project. The ITO allowed the assessee's claim for Rs. 10,364 for the new machineries installed it Veraval at the cost of Rs. 41,454 but he rejected its claim for investment allowance in respect of the plant and machinery installed at Kandla project for both the years on the ground that the appellant was not engaged in any manufacturing a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nt case. The learned D.R. distinguished the cases cited on behalf of the assessee and submitted that processing was a concept different from that of manufacturing and was certainly less than manufacturing itself. In support of his arguments, he relied upon the cases of S.P.G.C. Metal Industries (P.) Ltd. v. CIT [1985] 152 ITR 484 (Mad.), Mittal Ice Cold Storage v. CIT [1986] 159 ITR 18 (MP), S. B. Cold Storage Industries (P.) Ltd. v. CIT [1987] 166 ITR 646 (Cal.), IAC v. Parikh Engg. Body Building Co. Ltd. [1989] 31 ITD 1 (Pat.) and IAC v. R.S. Avtar Singh Co. [1990] 32 ITD 694 (Delhi). Reference was also made where the Supreme Court granted special leave to appeal directly against the assessment order of the ITO rejecting assessee's ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... bviously the oil in such form could not be marketed for use and in order to make it marketable it is necessary to treat the oil through a series of processing. The processing being carried on by the assessee at its Kandla project includes heating the oil at certain degrees and melting the same. After melting the oil is transferred to the filteration plant where impurities, if any, is filtered through. Thereafter in the filling section the oil is packed into tins in liquid form and the tins are caped and/or sealed in sealing section. It would thus be seen that the oil imported by the assessee is not marketed in the same form. It is made marketable by the assessee after giving heating and other treatments. After the processing given by the as ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r textile companies as an industrial company engaged in manufacturing activity and hence entitled to investment allowance u/s. 32A. Similarly in the case of Harihar Quarry the Tribunal held that the activity of crushing rubble into stone grits (kapchis) was a manufacturing activity as the end product had a different and distinct name and is also put to use differently than the raw material from which such end product is manufactured. 7.5 From a study of the above cases it is quite evident that the Hon'ble Gujarat High Court as also the Benches of the Tribunal at Ahmedabad had consistently considered such processing activities of an assessee which altered the original commodity received by him into another commodity as amounting to manufac ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... titled to investment allowance. No question of law was held to have arisen out of the order of the Tribunal. That is not at all the position in the instant case. 7.7 In the cases of Mittal Ice Cold Storage and S.B. Cold Storage Industries (P.) Ltd., the MP and Calcutta High Courts respectively were concerned with the claims for investment allowance of such assessees which were running cold storage for storing certain commodities. It was held in those cases that operation of the plants did not result in bringing into existence any new and distinct marketable commodity. The articles or goods preserved in the cold storage plant remained the same as they were prior to such preservation and there was no manufacture or production of "cool air ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of a decision of the Tribunal in terms of which such benefit was inadmissible. In that case the assessee was engaged in the business of construction of buildings and had claimed investment allowance u/s. 32A. The Tribunal not only held that the ITO was not justified in reopening the assessment u/s. 147(b) but also the assessee was not entitied to claim investment allowance as building was not an article or thing within the meaning of section 32A(2)(b) of the Act. Such are not the facts obtaining in the case before us. The ratio of these decisions of the Tribunal, in our opinion, also does not advance the case of the revenue. 7.9 We are, therefore, clearly of the opinion that the activities being carried out by the assessee-firm in conver ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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