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11. The ld. A.R. further submitted that the judgements referred to by the appellants are also not applicable to the facts of the present case as in those cases, the issue was whether goods already in retail pack are further packed in a wholesale pack and marketed be considered to involve the process of repacking from bulk pack to retail pack.

12. Further, he has submitted that merely the bulk packs of Soda ash in bags of 50/75kgs., were itself marketable, would not make any difference because repacking into smaller pack were meant for retail customers. The activities by which soda ash are transferred from the bulk packs to retail packs, would definitely attract Chapter Note 10 of Chapter 28 of CETA, 1985 as by such activity, the soda ash became marketable to the retail consumers. In this connection, the ld. A.R. placed reliance on the decision of the Honble Supreme Court in the case of Air Liquide North India Pvt. Ltd. Vs. Commissioner of Central Excise, Jaipur I reported in 2011 (271) ELT 321 (SC).

16. In the Order impugned before us, the Ld. Adjudicating authority has held that the activity of re-packing of soda ash into small/retail packs of 500 gms/1 kg from bulk packs of 75/50 kgs, results into manufacture, in view of Chapter Note 10 of Chapter 28 of CETA,1985 read with Section 2(f) of the Central Excise Act,1944. The Ld. Adjudicating authority in arriving at the said conclusion had observed that the Soda Ash contained in bags of 75/50 kgs are bulk packs and the packs of 500gms/1 kg are retail packs. Assailing the said observation, the ld. Consultant submitted that the Chapter Note 10 prescribe that the activity of re-packing from bulk packs to retail packs only would amount to manufacture, whereas the appellant did not carry out re-packing from bulk pack but transfer soda ash from Standard Packs of 75/50 Kgs. into small packs of 500gms/1 Kg. In nutshell, his contention is that the activity of re-packing would result into manufacture and are confined to those cases only where the bulk pack are converted and/or transferred into retail packs; but when the contents are transferred from Standard packs and repacked into retail packs, the Chapter Note 10 of Chapter 28 is not attracted.

16.?It is significant to note that the notes do not refer to repacking from wholesale pack to retail pack, but refer to repacking from bulk pack to retail pack. There is, clearly, a distinction between a bulk pack and the wholesale pack. To our minds, the expressions wholesale pack and retail pack denote the kind of packing to which goods are subjected to render them suitable for sale at a particular commercial level. Wholesale packing would consist of a number of retail packs put together for ease of transportation and distribution. The wholesale packing generally denotes the quantities in which goods are sent for a particular industry are sold to wholesalers, being made up of a number of packs and the quantity in which goods are generally sold in retail. Thus, a wholesale pack of cigarettes may consist of a pack containing say 10 packs of 20 cigarettes each, the retail pack means a pack of cigarettes containing 20. A bulk pack, on the other hand, would denote goods kept in bulk, not for purposes of sale at a particular commercial level, but to be utilized either for repacking into retail packs or for sale directly. Conversion from wholesale pack to retail pack would not involve repacking. All that is required to be done is to take the retail pack out of the wholesale pack in which it has been put. Conversion from bulk pack to retail pack would however require such repacking. The quantities of the commodity which are in the bulk pack would not be in any kind of packing suitable for sale at any commercial level and thus would have to be either repacked before sale or sold without any packing."

24. In BOC India Ltd.s case, the respondent was engaged in the manufacture of various gases and they used to purchase Helium Gas from other manufacturers and sold the same under their Brand name and claimed the same as a part of their Trading activity. The issue raised before the Honble Supreme Court was whether mere labeling & relabeling in absence the activity of repacking from bulk packs to retail packs would result into manufacture as prescribed under Chapter Note 10 of Chapter 28 of CETA,1985. In the present case there is no dispute on the aspect labeling and relabeling of the soda ash bags, but the issue is repacking from bulk pack(which the Appellant claimed as Standard Pack) to retail pack and hence the said ratio of the Honble apex court is also not applicable to the facts of the present case.