(1.) Since these appeals raise common question of law and facts, therefore, the same are being taken up together for consideration and disposal.
(2.) The assessees have industrial undertaking in backward area of Himachal Pradesh and have claimed deductions under Section 80 IC of the Act. The case of the assessees is that they are engaged in manufacturing of paper insulated wires and strips of copper and aluminium, which are used in the oil filled electrical transformers. It is claimed by the assessees that wires are drawn from wire rods and thereafter insulation coating is done on the wires with different chemicals by enamel coating, annealing and then paper is wrapped on the wire to make it insulated. Some of the assessees are also manufacturing insulated wire strips and their product is further used to manufacture coils.
(3.) In the regular assessment made, the A.O. held that the activity of drawing wires of thinner gauges from wires and rods of thicker gauges does not amount to manufacture or production as the original commodity i.e. wire did not undergo any change in the process and the resultant commodity was also wire, albeit of different dimensions. To come to such conclusion, he relied upon the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Collector of Central Excise vs. Technoweld Industries Ltd, 2003 11 SCC 798.