- (1.)The appellants imported circuit-breakers and connected items for the setting up of new substations to improve their transmission and distribution network in the major cities to which they catered. The Central Electricity authority, Government of India, gave them a certificate on 28-5-1990 that the goods to be imported were eligible for the concessional rate of customs duty under Tariff Heading 98. 01. This classification having been denied to them by the lower authorities, the matter went higher and ultimately reached the customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal. It is the order of that tribunal which is under challenge before us.
(2.)The Tribunal took the view that the imported goods were to be used for improvement in the transmission and distribution of electricity in the major cities; there was going to be no increase in the generation of power in the capacity already existing and set up by the appellants. Therefore, the imported goods were not meant for the substantial expansion of an existing power project and were not covered by Tariff Heading 98. 01.
(3.)Tariff Heading 98. 01 applies to all items of machinery required for the initial setting up of a unit or the substantial expansion of an existing unit of, inter alia, a specified power project. The Tribunal appears to have taken the view that "power project" meant only a project which generated electric power and not a project that transmitted or distributed electricity.