Full Judgment
Collector has denied the benefit of Notification No. 67/83 in respect of halogen lamps on the ground that they are having rating of 10 watt and are therefore not covered by Sl. No. 5 of the Notification No. 67/83. The Asstt. Collector should have, while rejecting this classified the bulb as falling under Sl. No. 4 of the notification because it covers vacuum and gas filled bulbs and exceeding 60 watt. Instead of doing this, he had classified under SI. No. 10 which reads "bulbs and lamps other than those specified in Sl. Nos. 1 to 9 above". The order of the Asstt. Collector is incorrect. The appellants are entitled to the Notification No. 67/83-C.E. as the said goods fall under Sl. No. 4 of the Notification. In so far as xenon lamps, the Asstt. Collector denied the exemption on the ground that they are not in the nature of bulbs but are in the nature of tubes. There is no restriction in the notification whether the gas filled bulbs should be in the nature of bulbs or tube. Heading 8539 covers electric filament or discharge lamps including sealed lamps units and ultra or infrared lamps, arc lamps. The explanatory notes also state that the lamps are of various shapes. They could be either spherical, pear or onion shaped, flame shaped, tubular (straight or curved); special fancy shapes for illuminations, decorations, Christmas trees etc. It is therefore evident that gas filled bulbs need not necessarily be in the shape of the bulbs commonly understood. It could also be in the form of a tube. These would therefore be covered either under Sl.
No. 4 or Sl. No. 5 of the Notification No. 67/83-C.E. In the absence of the wattage, classifying the goods under Sl. No. 5 of the notification would be more appropriate. I accordingly hold that the halogen lamps are correctly classifiable under Sl. No. 4 of Notification No. 67/83 as not exceeding 60 watts and xenon lamps under Sl. No. 5 of the notification as gas filled bulbs exceeding 60 watts. I accordingly set aside the order of the Asstt. Collector and allow the appeal." 3. Ld. SDR for the appellant referred to the order-in-original and submitted that the view taken by the Asstt. Collector of Customs was correct and that the goods were rightly classifiable under Sl. No. 10 of the table annexed to Notification No. 67/83-C.E.4. We have carefully considered the matter. The Asstt. Collector of Customs had held that as the rating of halogen lamps was 10 watts they were not covered by Sl. No. 5 of the table annexed to Notification No.67/83-C.E. Sl. No. 5 read as under : 5. The Collector of Customs (Appeals) had observed that while ruling out the coverage under Sl. No. 5 the adjudicating authority had not considered their classification under Sl. No. 4 of the same table which reads as under :- "vacuum and gas filled bulbs not exceeding 60 watts, others than specified in Sl. Nos. 1 to 3 above." 6. The Revenue had sought to classify these goods under Sl. No. 10 of the table which reads as under :- "bulbs and lamps other than those specified in Sl. Nos. 1 to 9 above".
A reading of the entry will clearly show that it is in the nature of the residuary entry and classification therein could only be considered if they were not otherwise classifiable under any of the Sl. Nos. 1 to 9 in the table to that notification dated 1-3-1983.
7. With regard to xenon lamps also the Collector of Customs (Appeals) had referred to the tariff heading under Heading 85.39 and explanatory notes. He observed that the expression 'lamps' in Heading 85.39 had been used in a generic sense and had covered bulbs and tubes also as is clear from the description in the table annexed to that Notification No. 67/83-C.E. We consider that the intention as culled out from Notification was to use the expression lamp in a general sense as to cover bulbs and tubes also. Simply because the xenon lamps were in the form of tube they could not be excluded from the purview of Heading 85.39.
9. Taking all the relevant considerations into account we do not find any ground to interfere with the view taken by the Collector of Customs (Appeals) and as a result there is no merits in this appeal filed by the Revenue and the same is rejected.