Case Law Details
In the case of Commissioner Of Central Excise, Vapi Vs. M/s. Global Health Care Products , the Supreme Court held that ‘Close up’ should be classified as dental cleaner, not toothpaste on account of different and varing ingredients and ratio of all the inputs which go into the manufacturing of a toothpaste and dental cleaner.
Brief facts of the Case
The assessee is engaged in the manufacture of different brands of toothpaste and these are manufactured exclusively for M/s. Hindustan Lever Limited, Mumbai (for short, ‘HLL’) since 1998. Major brands of HLL manufactured by the assessee are Close-Up Red, Close-Up Blue, Close-Up Green and Pepsodent falling under Chapter 33 of the Excise Tariff. The assessee is registered with the appellant/Revenue and has been paying the excise duty on the aforesaid products under Chapter sub-heading 3306.10 of the tariff. From July 01, 2001, a new product known as ‘Close-Up Whitening’ was introduced by the assessee. The assessee classified this product under Chapter sub-heading 3306.90. The Revenue treated the aforesaid classification as erroneous as according to it Close-Up Whitening also falls under Chapter sub-heading 3306.10 and not 3306.90. It also suspected that this product was deliberately misclassified in the said heading to evade payment of proper Central excise duties by resorting to assessment of the product under Section 4 of the Central Excise Act, 1944 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Act’) instead of assessment under Section 4A thereof.
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that’s what legislation changes over supreme court decision.
Close up whitening dental cleaner was earlier also classified in 3306.90 as per Mumbai tribunal decision in 2005.