ORDER
S. Kalyanam, Vice President
1. The above reference applications arise out of the common order of the Tribunal dated 30-11-1994.
2. Shri Subbayya, the learned Counsel, submitted that the Tribunal has given a finding that the steel barrels used as a packaging material for transporting transformer oil is not a component part of the transformer and therefore not eligible for Modvat credit. It was contended this finding of the Tribunal would give rise to a question of law, since the transformer oil is a coolant without which the transformer cannot function. He therefore contended that a question of law would arise in this regard. The learned Counsel further submitted that the manufacture of a transformer is not complete without the transformer oil and the finding of the Tribunal in this regard also is not correct and would give rise to a question of law. The learned Counsel relied on the ruling of the Larger Bench in the case of CCE, Jaipur v. Lipi Data Systems reported in 1995 (80) E.L.T. 542 in support of the plea and said that the reference in the impugned order of the Tribunal to the ruling of the Supreme Court in the case of Korea India Ltd. is therefore not applicable to the facts of the case and on the basis of the ratio of the Larger Bench ruling cited supra it should be held, that a question of law would arise out of the impugned order of the Tribunal meriting reference.
3. Heard Shri Arulsamy, the learned DR.
4. We have considered the submissions made before us. We note that the plea that the steel barrels used for transporting transformer oil would be eligible for Modvat credit is considered in the impugned order of the Tribunal in detail in Para 6 as under :-
“Likewise before the benefit of Modvat credit in respect of barrels is considered, we will have to first consider whether transformer oil which is stated to be used for filling in the transformers as a coolant can be considered as a component of the same. It is seen that the transformer oil is not filled in the merely sent alongwith the transformer. The appellants have not shown that in the market and according to trade circles the transformer is not treated as complete unless the oil is filled in it. While it may be accepted that coolant is necessary for the transformers, transformer is an electrical equipment and its manufacture can said to be complete the moment all the electrical components for conversion of the voltage are in place and it can be assembled as such. For making it functional, as in the case of typewriter ribbon mentioned above, the coolant added therefore cannot be considered as a component for the purpose of transformer and the question of extending the benefit of Modvat credit in respect of the barrels as such would not arise.”
In respect of the plea relating to the transformer oil, we find that it was a non-issue before the Tribunal inasmuch as admittedly the applicant had succeeded before the learned Collector (Appeals) where a definite finding is entered that transformer oil is an input. We are of the view that the above finding is purely a finding of fact on the basis of evidence and would not give rise to a question of law. The reference applications are therefore rejected.