Bar
Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944,Item 26-A (1), 68
The appellants manufacture bars and rods including hollow rods from copper alloys. Their product is known in the market as hollow rods and they are of different sizes and shapes. A round hollow product which is normally produced by extrusion without subsequent cold working and in which the wall thickness is usually larger in proportion to the bore and is known as a hollow rod — see Glossary of terms applicable to wrought products in Copper, Zinc and their Alloys, British Standards Institution, B.S. 1420 : 1965. In the Indian Standard Glossary of terms for copper and copper alloys. (Part I) (Second Revision) hollow rod is described as round hollow product, the cross-section of which completely encloses a void or voids also known as hollow bar in which the wall thickness is usually greater in proportion to the bore.
Tariff Item 26-A(1) refers to a product in any crude form including ingots, bars, blocks, slabs, billets, shots and pellets. Under the ISI Standard bar/rod has been described as any extruded, drawn, cold or hot rolled, forged, cast or combination of any of these processes of solid section supplied in straight length, whose width or distance between parallel faces is greater by 6 mm and the sub-entries following the same show that they can be in different shapes. Therefore, the term ‘‘bar’’ in Entry 26-A(1) would also include a rod. As pointed out earlier hollow bars are a product known to the market as such and, therefore, there can be no doubt that even by commercial parlance test the product is known by the same name. That begin so, we think that it stands attracted by Item 26-A(1) as was held by the Government of India. We are, therefore, of the opinion that the authorities below were wrong in classifying the goods as falling within Tariff Item 68 and not under Item 26-A(1). [Alcebex Metals Pvt. Ltd. v. Collector of Central Excise, Jaipur, (1997) 11 SCC 613 (614, 615)]