ORDER
Gowri Shankar, Member (T)
1. The appellant uses chemicals specified in the appeal for the manufacture of sand moulds which are in turn used for casting, piston ring and pins in the course of manufacture in its factory. Credit taken on the duty paid on these goods was used by it towards payment of duty on the piston rings and pins manufactured by it. The department proposed denial of credit on the ground that the finished product in the manufacture of which these chemicals are used is sand moulds which are exempted from duty. The Assistant Collector dropped the demand. The Collector (Appeals) having confirmed this order, the department has come up in appeal.
2. The ground in the appeal, which the departmental representative adopts, is that the chemicals are used in manufacture of sand moulds which are apparatus or appliances. They therefore fall in the excluded category of inputs. Therefore, credit is not admissible.
3. The three Member Bench of this Tribunal has held in its order in Shri Ramakrishna Steel Ltd. v. Collector of Central Excise Order Nos. 310-314/96-NB, dated 2-2-1996 [reported in 1996 (82) E.L.T. 575 (Tri.)] that sand moulds are not ‘goods’ and that chemicals used in making sand moulds are used in the manufacture of castings. Applying the ratio of that decision, I decline to interfere and dismiss the appeal.