| Central Excise duties are levied on goods produced or manufactured in India. Section 3 of the Central Excises & Salt Act, 1944, provides for levy and collection of excise duties on goods produced or manufactured in India as and at the rates specified in the schedule to the C. Excise Tariff Act, 1985 which is also popularly known as the Central Excise Tariff. |
| With the enactment of the Central Excises & Salt Act, 1944, the first Schedule to the Act also came into force w.e.f. February 1944. This Schedule listed the commodities and the rates at which Central Excise duties were leviable on them. It consisted of 11 items arranged in an alphabetical order. Over the years there were additions to this list and by March, 1960 the number of items which had gone up to 30, were re-arranged in accordance with the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC). By 1970, almost all the important raw materials and manufactured inputs had been brought within the excise network. Thereafter till 1975, a residuary tariff item covering "all goods not elsewhere specified", was introduced in the First Schedule thus providing for a comprehensive coverage of the excise tariff. In the subsequent years, attempts were made to redesign the descriptions & definitions of the Tariff entries on the basis of the CCCN introspect of some of the items like petroleum products, iron and steel products, non-ferrous metals and synthetic resins and plastics, while the description of the rest of the items continued to be according to the common trade palance. However by and large, the process of development of the Central Excise Tariff as represented by the first Schedule to the C. Excises & Salt Act, 1944, over the yeard did not follow any systematic or definite pattern. Additions, amendments and changes in the tariff entries were made from time to time to suit the requirements as per the prevailing situation and conditions. In order, therefore, to simplify and rationalise the tariff structure and to bring about a certain measure of uniformity in the matter of classification & assessment of excisable goods & narrow down the areas of dispute and conflict between the department and the trade in these matters it was considered necessary to review the same. |
| A technical study group was accordingly appointed to review and revise the Central Excise Tariff, keeping in view the need for simplification & rationalisation of the tariff and assessment procedures so as to reduce the areas of conflict between the tax payers and the tax collector and to facilitate collection of data regarding the incidence of excise duty for purposes of policy formulation and at the same time to align it to the extent possible with the tariff code of customs and other statistical classifications used by the government with regard to industrial classifications used by the government with regard to industrial production, licensing, import licensing, carriage of freight by the railways, shipping and other means of transport etc. |
BROAD SCHEME AND STRUCTURE |
| Both in the Customs as well as the Excise Tariff Schedules the lay out and Scheme of the Tariff or the sequence in which the sections and chapter headings are arranged follows a amongst the sections/chapters as well as within the sections/chapters has a sequential flow starting with goods least processed moving gradually to unworked products, semi-finished goods, finished goods and concluding with fully finished goods. The arrangement and presentation of the chapter headings grouped under chapters and sections is in the following sequential order: |
| CHAPTERS 1-24 Sections I-IV. These cover goods of vegetable or animal origin and products thereof which include products of the food industry, sugar, confectionery, prepared or preserved foods, tobacco etc. CHAPTERS 25-40 Sections V to VII. Inputs for chemical and alloyed industries and products or such Industries fall within the group of headings covered by these sections/chapters. CHAPTERS 41-49 Sections VIII to X Other raw materials such as leather, paper cork etc. and products thereof fall within he group of headings covered by these sections/chapters. CHAPTERS 64-71 Sections XII to XIV This group comprises of articles manufactured out of raw materials of the preceding chapters. Items such as footwear, china-ware, glass and glass-ware figure in this group. CHAPTERS 72-83 Section XV These chapters cover ferrous and non-ferrous metals and articles thereof. CHAPTERS 84-85 Section XVI Machinery and mechanical appliances, electrical equipment, products of the electronics industry etc. are covered by these chapters. CHAPTERS 86-96 Sections XVII to XX Miscellaneous goods/articles are covered in this group which includes motor vehicles, and parts thereof, optical appliances, medical and surgical instruments etc. |