Case: Commnr. Of Central Excise, Pune Vs. M/S. Cadbury India Ltd

M/s. Cadbury India Limited, in its factory at Induri, Pune and captively consumed in that factory and other factories of the respondent in the manufacture of chocolate. No part of these products are sold by the respondent.The respondent had sought valuation of these goods under Rule 6(b)(ii) of the Central Excise (Valuation) Rules, which provides for basing the valuation on such goods on the "cost of production on manufacture including profits, if any, the assessee would have earned in the sale of such goods."The assessee had showed the price of these goods supported by a statement verified by a chartered accountant. The statement indicated the cost of edible and packing material used in the manufacture including its overheads. A separate statement in support of the profit added was formulated and these assessments were provisionally approved.At the time of the finalization of the assessment, the department took the view that the value of the goods should include the labour cost, direct expenses, total factory expense, administration expenses, travelling expense, insurance premium, advertising expense and interest. The Assistant Commissioner added these elements to the declared value. He added the total expenses of the company as shown in the balance sheet and deducted the cost material. A percentage of this cost of the remaining figure was treated as the factor by which the assessable value should be increased.In appeal the Commissioner (Appeals) upheld the order of the Assistant Commissioner. He held that since Rule 6(b)(ii) itself specified including the profit on the goods captively consumed hence this indicated the intention in the rule that the valuation should be brought to the level of the sale value of the goods and hence this includes all expenses referred to above. The Commissioner(Appeals) also relied on the circular dated 30.10.1996 issued by the Board relating to captively consumed goods. He has also relied upon paragraph 49 of the Supreme Courts judgment in Union of India vs. Bombay Tyres International AIR 1984 SC 420 .In further appeal the Tribunal set aside the orders of the Commissioner and the Assistant Commissioner. The Tribunal held that sub-rule (ii) of Rule 6(b) can be invoked only in a situation where the goods are not sold and there are no comparable goods. The Tribunal held that the expenses other than the cost of manufacture, cost of raw materials and the profit would not be includible in the assessable value.

Reasoning:
The assessee has contended that there is no dispute that these intermediate goods are not marketable and are not bought and sold in the market. Hence the valuation of these intermediate goods has to be done according to Rule 6(b)(ii) of the Central Excise (Valuation) Rules, 1975According to settled principles of accountancy only the elements that have actually gone into the manufacture/production of these intermediates i.e. sum total of the direct labor cost, direct material cost, direct cost of manufacture and the factory overheads of the factory producing such intermediate products are included in the cost of production. The Appellant produced alongwith the reply to the Show Cause Notice the following authoritative texts: Wheldons Cost Accounting and Costing Methods, Cost Accounting methods by B K Bhar, Principles of Cost Accounting by N.K. Prasad, Glossary of Management Accounting Terms by ICWAIIt may be noted that in the present case the intermediate products (milk crumbs, refined milk chocolate and four other intermediate products) are captively consumed in the Respondents own factory. These intermediate products are not sold nor are marketable. Hence there can be no question of including the expenses of the factory which produces the final product namely the chocolate e.g. advertising, insurance and another expenses in their valuation as was sought to be added by the Commissioner (Appeals) and the Assistant Commissioner.