Amitasha Enterprises Pvt.Ltd vs Cce Nagpur on 14 December, 2018
-Del)] that 'destruction testing' erases the prototype out of existence
and, thereby, of dutiability. In arriving at this decision, the contention
of Revenue that the cost of assembling and destruction, of prototype
should be included in the value of clearances of finished goods was
not found sustainable because
'4.... We are not inclined to accept the contention raised by
the Revenue that these testing are conducted in relation to the
goods manufactured by the assessee, namely, parts of
transmission towers. Parts are cleared from the factory after
undergoing required quality test. The charges for the
destruction test which is conducted on the prototype towers
cannot therefore be added to the assessable value of the
goods manufactured by the Respondent.'
and thus according finality to the present dispute on that score. An
earlier decision of the Tribunal in Commissioner of Central Excise,
Mumbai-II v. KEC International Ltd [1998 (102) ELT 621
(Tribunal)] noted a similar lack of evidence to sustain the claim of
Revenue that prototypes, subjected to destruction, are excisable goods
cleared from the factory. Following these two decisions, we set aside
the demand on the prototype in the impugned order.