In Brief
Lipi Boilers manufactured boilers and supplied certain duty-paid components directly to the buyer's project site. The tax authority sought to include these components' value in the assessable base for excise duty, arguing they were essential parts. The Supreme Court held that the boiler, once assembled and permanently embedded at the site through civil engineering work, becomes an immovable property falling outside excise duty's scope. Excise duty applies only to manufacture of movable goods. The Court also found the extended limitation period invalid, as no wilful suppression was proven. The assessee had filed returns disclosing all data. The judgment reaffirms that levy (Section 3) must precede valuation (Section 4), and immovable structures cannot bear excise duty.
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