MANIAR AND COMPANY Vs. COMMISSIONER OF CENTRAL EXCISE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this Appeal filed by M/s. Maniar and Company, the issue involved is whether the loader fabricated on tractor by them is classifiable under Heading 87.05 of the Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act as special purpose motor vehicle or under Heading 84.29 of the Tariff as confirmed by the Commissioner (Appeals) under the impugned order.

(2.) Shri K.K. Anand, learned Advocate submitted that the Appellants have only fabricated a loader on tractor which picks up garbage and dumps it on to the waiting transportation trucks; that the impugned product does not have any capacity to load the garbage on to it and transport the same and therefore it is a special purpose vehicle classifiable under Heading 87.05; that Note 3 to Chapter 87 provides that building a body or fabrication or mounting or fitting of structures or equipment on the chassis shall amount to manufacture of motor vehicle; that once the activity of mounting equipment is regarded as manufacture of motor vehicle, it goes without showing that motor vehicle has to be assessed as a motor vehicle and not as a machine classifiable under Chapter 84; that as per Explanatory Notes of HSN below Heading 84.30 machines mounted on tractor or motor vehicle are excluded from the purview of the Heading 84.30. Finally, he relied upon the decision in the case of CCE, Baroda v. L.M.P. Precision Engineers Co. Ltd. [2004 (163) E.L.T. 290 (S.C.)] wherein water well drilling rigs mounted on motor vehicle chassis has been classified under sub -heading 8705.20 of the Tariff and not under Heading 84.30.

(3.) Countering the arguments, Shri Virag Gupta, learned Departmental Representative submitted that Heading 84.29 of the Central Excise Tariff applies to self -propelled bulldozers including angledozers, graders, levellers, scrapers, mechanical shovels, excavators, shovel loaders, tamping machines and road rollers; that this Heading 84.29 applies to material handling equipment; that the Appellants themselves mentioned in their catalogue for the impugned product that same is most suitable for handling material at fertilizers factory, chemical factory, sugar factory, paper industries steel plants, cement plant for quarrying limestone, granite, etc.; that thus the loader fabricated on the tractor is not used as a tractor, but it is used as material handling equipment, an equipment used to clear garbage and also to remove earth; that as such, the equipment is rightly classifiable under Heading 84.29 of the Tariff.