G. Sankaran, Vice President

1. The captioned three appeals have been filed by the Collector of Central Excise, Thane against the three Orders-in-Appeal passed by the Collector of Central Excise (Appeals),. Bombay noted against each appeal.

2. The Assistant Collector by his Order No. V(14D)17- 129/PLVC/ 83/1305 dated 28-2-1984 held that Central Excise duty was payable by M/s. Indian Dyestuff Industries Ltd. (the respondents before us) on formulated dyes and that value for the purpose of assessment of duty should be the value of formulated dyes in which state they were sold and not the value at the stage of wet cake. In appeal, this order was set aside by the Collector (Appeals) by his order dated 7-2-85. Appeal No. 965/85-C is against this order.

3. By order No. V-140(18)81/84 dated 5-2-85 the Asstt. Collector held that the action of the excise officers of levying, assessing and collecting excise duty at the formulation stage was in order, as per the definition of "manufacture" in Section 2(f) of the Central Excises, and Salt Act (hereafter, the Act). Accordingly, he rejected the refund claim for Rs. 1,28,40,383.03 for the period from 1-4-83 to 31-3-84. In appeal, the Collector (A