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A LINE that Van Morrison sings in a `You Make Me Feel So Free' lyric is, "I just need somewhere to dump all my negativity But baby you make me feel so free." I'm sure Airtech Ltd would have liked to chime in, especially after it won a case before the New Delhi tribunal against the Excise Department.

The dispute was about the company's `dumper placer', used for carrying containers filled with refuse or waste in cities. These are eligible for nil rate of duty (as `motor vehicles for transport of goods' in the category of `refuse collectors') argued Airtech; but the taxman was keen on dumping dumper placer along with `dumper' to attract a duty of 15 per cent.

To counter the contention of Excise officials that dumper placer is nothing but dumper, Airtech drew attention to the differences between the two vehicles. "Dumpers are sturdily built vehicles with a tipping or bottom opening body, designed for the transport of excavated or other materials," said the company. And "Dumper placer carries containers place to place by self-loading the containers filled with goods kept at various places for transportation; and it has the capacity to self-load the containers and unload by elevating devices and winching equipment."

The tribunal studied the Excise Notification on the subject and noticed that dumpers would have to weigh (net) more than eight tonnes, and be designed for a maximum payload of 10 tonnes or more. While the Revenue did not produce any evidence to show that the dumper placers in question met these stipulations, Airtech was ready with technical brochure about its product.

It showed that the net weight of dumper placer is not more than eight tonnes and that its capacity is not more than 4,000 kg. Therefore, the tribunal ruled that dumper placer is not classifiable as dumper.

Shall we say that the taxman just needs somewhere to dump all his negativity? Or is it that we just need someplace to dump all negative taxmen?

LawLane@TheHindu.co.in

D. Murali

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