- (1.) THESE are the two batches of the statutory appeals filed under S.35 - L(b) of the Central Excise Act, 1944 (for short "the Act"). The first batch of appeals being CAs Nos. 1322-30 of 2001 impugns Final Orders Nos. 939-47 of 2000 - B dated 16-6-2000 in Appeals Nos. E / 455 of 1994 - B, E / 2194 of 1994 - B, 1507 of 1996 - B, 1246 of 1996 - B, 1247 of 1996 - B, 676 of 1996 - B, 1281 of 1996 - B, 1266 of 1997 - B and 1697 of 1996 - B passed by the Customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal, New Delhi (for short "the Tribunal") wherein the issue of classification of iron and steel products, namely, side slittings, cuttings, roughly shaped pieces and trimmings under the Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act has been decided against the Revenue, whereas the second set of appeals being CAs Nos. 4371-72 of 2003 impugns Final Orders Nos. 420-21 passed by the Tribunal dated 11-9-2002 in Appeals Nos. 1578-79 of 2002 - B for a later period. The Tribunal following its earlier order dated 16-6-2000 in the first batch of appeals, has rejected these appeals.
(2.) THE point involved in these two sets of appeals being the same, are being disposed of by a common order, as had been do ne by the Tribunal. For the sake of convenience, the appellant and the respondent are hereinafter referred to as "the Revenue" and "the assessee" respectively. The instant appeals pertain to the correct classification of side offcuts of HR coils which the assessee sought to classify as "waste and scrap" under Tariff Entry 72.04 while the Revenue sought their classification as "flat - rolled products" under Tariff Entries 72.08, 72.09 and 72.11. The assessee was engaged in the manufacture of flat - rolled products (cold - rolled) of non - alloy steel out of the duty - paid HR / CR strips in coil form. The assessee filed its classification list effective from 15-3-1990 seeking classification of the flat - rolled products (cold - rolled products) attracting duty @ Rs 10,000 per MT and also sought for classification of waste and scrap of non - alloy steel inter alia, including side slitting / cutting of HR and CR. Such goods were declared by the assessee as waste and scrap and as not usable as such, because of breakage, cutting up, ware and other reasons. The assessee had cleared the same at payment of duty at a lower rate by declaring them as re - melting scrap not usable as such. Classification list was approved on 15-10-1990.
(3.) AFTER an investigation conducted by the officers of Preventive Branch of the Office of the Additional Collector, Central Excise, Ghaziabad, it was found that the assessee has been obtaining duty - paid HR coils / CR coils for manufacture of cold - rolled products in their factory. The input coils (HR / CR) so received by the assessee were of greater width generally ranging between 1040 and 1600 mm. But the assessee could cold roll in their factory coils up to width of 1275 mm. The input coils of greater width had therefore to be slitted into smaller width by the job workers employed by the assessee (i) so that the same could be fed into machines for cold rolling, (ii') the side slits were being obtained as a result of specific slitting instructions keeping in view their intended use.;