1988(05)LCX0065

IN THE CEGAT, COURT NO. II, NEW DELHI

S/Shri H.R. Syiem, Member (T) and G.P. Agarwal, Member (J)

DODSAL (P) LTD.

Versus

COLLECTOR OF CUSTOMS, BOMBAY

Order No. 300/88-B2, dated 6-5-1988 in Appeal No. C/2264/83-B2

Advocated By : S/Shri A.N. Haksar with C.M. Mehta and R.C. Pandey, Advocates, for the Appellant.

Shri J. Gopinath, SDR, for the Respondent.

[Order per : H.R. Syiem, Member (T)]. - The dispute is over the assessment of Tension Stringing equipment imported by M/s. Dodsal P. Ltd, the appellants imported in 75 packages containing the main equipment and accessories. The importers claimed the equipment with accessories were assessable under Heading 84.22 of the Customs Tariff. The consignment consisted of a number of machines and articles such as Puller, Hydraulic Tensioner, Running out blocks and Steel ropes, and the Collector of Customs assessed the goods under different heads by his order No. NS-398/83.G, dated 16-6-1983; he did not accept the claim for assessment of the entire consignment as one machine under 84.22, but assessed the goods as 28 different items under different heads. He reasoned that each machine works independently though it contributes to the working of the system as a whole, the work being tension stringing of electricity cables on transmission towers.

2. The learned counsel for the importers M/s. Dodsal Pvt. Ltd. said to the bench that the Collector had not understood the meaning of Heading 84.22 of the Customs Tariff or of the meaning of Note 3 and Note 4 of Section XVI and proceeded to read both the headings and the section notes. The equipment imported are parts of one single composite machine designed to perform one task in complete co-ordination with one another, no single machine can do its work without the contribution of the others. He also showed sketches of the work of tension stringing carried out with these machines. All the items of the equipments were meant for conveying and holding power cables under uniform stretch from one transmission line tower to the next. Precise tension is to be achieved in order to reduce sag because excessive sagging may result in the power cable coming into contact with abrasive surfaces and thereby causing loss of power across the transmission towers, the extra length of cable is taken up and wound on the reel stand. It is easy to see, therefore, that all the pieces of the equipment are one composite machinery working in co-ordinated action.

3. The learned counsel for the department, however, did not see any virtue in 84.22 for these goods. He said that the equipment may indeed work as a team making different contribution to the common goal, namely, tension stringing of the power cable across transmission line tower, but we cannot fail to note that such piece has a distinct and different role to play in the task of the stringing of the power cable. The puller does work different from the tensioner’s work, while the reel stand performs a third task not possible for the other two equipments to fulfil their very locations during actual work rule out their being parts of a machinery or being a part of one composite single machinery; they are merely machines which are used in co-operation with each other for the best result not because they are parts of the same machine, but because their individual work adds to the deficiency of the other machine.

4. The work of the different equipment can be explained in few sentences. Reels of cables from the reel elevator are passed to the tensioner and taken from there over a transmission tower to the next tower and connected to the puller which pulls the cable to the required tension, the extra length of cable then wound on take-up reel stand. In an explanatory note, the retired chief engineer of the Maharastra State Electricity Board explains the functions of the units: at the start of the work the puller equipment is located at the far end of the station that is being tackled, whereas the hydraulic tensioner replaced suitably near the first tower. One end may be called the puller station and the other tensioner station, from where the force of releasing and paying out the conductor under controlled sagging is coordinated, with communication between the two by walkie talkie or by signals over the intermediate powers. The running-out blocks are suspended from the cross-arms of the tower of the line section taken up for construction and the pull-wire rope stands stretched from the puller station to the tension station, ready for hauling the conductor from the tensioner end to the puller station over the two cross-arms running-out blocks. Behind the tensioner are the conductor reels [on] their elevators feeding the conductor to the tensioners.

5. When the conductor stringing operation begins, the components have to work in conjunction simultaneously as the conductor is being payed out hydraulically and braked by the tensioner to ensure that the sagging of the conductor is restricted and the conductor rests in an aerial position smoothly without coming into contact with any outside abrasive surfaces.

6. The conductor have to be tensioned absolutely alike as it is being pulled and payed out under tension; the head helps to equalise the tension.

7. The final sagging is to be accurately achieved in relation to the temperature, both on the conductor and earthwire; they are held in anchored position before the final sagging operation is carried out.

8. This is sufficient to understand how the items of equipment work and what each machine does. It is not possible to see in the work as the work of one machine or of a composite machine working. They are all different machines but all doing their work in coordination with the others to achieve a common object which is the tension stringing of high power cables across transmission towers.

9. Heading 84.22 lists :

Lifting, Handling, Loading or unloading machinery telphers and conveyors (for example lifts, hoists, winchs, cranes, transporter cranes, jacks, pully tackle, belt conveyors and teleferices) not being machinery falling within Heading No. 84.23.

The main machines puller, tensioner, reelevators in this equipment imported by M/s. Dodsal (P) Ltd. are not for lifting or handling or loading or unloading; they are not lifts or hoist winches or cranes. The puller for example pulls the cable to the required tension while the conductor is being payed out, the tensioner brakes it to ensure correct sagging of the conductor and achieving the desired tension. In a manner of breaking, the puller and tensioner exert opposing forces on the cable and this is how the required tension is imparted to the cable strung on the towers. The one, without a doubt, cannot perform its work without the other, but this is far from being equivalent to the two being parts of one composite machine. It is merely that the puller does its work better when it exerts its force against the tensioner and the latter, by its braking operation, achieving the desired tension. The puller does not [depend] on the tensioner nor does the tensioner depend on the puller station - the two are put to work together simply because the output of one is useful to the output of the other. It is like two workers in an assembly-line production system, one of whom contributes his part in order to produce the finished goods, but it would not follow that the workers are parts of a composite whole. This is also true of all machines in the assembly line, each of which performs a different tasks, but each contributes directly to the work of the other to produce the finished goods; the machines are not necessarily or always parts of a composite machine. They are different individual machines, each with an identity of its own, although depend for its optimum performance on the contribution of the other machines.

10. The equipment imported by M/s. Dodsal are not parts of a composite machine, and therefore, note 3 of Section XVI is not applicable. Nor are they machines for lifting, for handling, for loading, for unloading. They are not even of the same kind as a horizontal jack which the importers claim as alternative argument.

11. In their claim for assessment under Heading 84.22 the assessees do not state what item under this head the goods are. The heading covers lifts, hoists, cranes, winchs, but we are not told much what these machines are. We are merely told what they do, but we should also have an explanation of what they are held by the importers to be; whether they are lifts, hoists or jacks etc. etc.

12. The learned counsel for M/s. Dodsal made a claim for assessment of the individual items on merits. We can, however, except only their plea for assessment of the reel elevator as a jack to be assessed under Heading 84.22. We direct its assessment accordingly.

13. For other items, the order of the Collector is in order shall remain undisturbed.

Equivalent 1997 (96) ELT 460 (Tribunal)