Defination of Manufacture under Excise Law :

It includes any process –

• Incidental or ancillary to the completion of a manufactured product; and
• Which is specified in relation to any goods in the section or chapter notes of the first schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act ,1985 as amounting to manufacture ;or
• Which in relation to the goods specified in the third schedule ,involves packing or repacking in a unit container or labelling or relabeling of containers including the declaration or alteration of retail sale price on it or adoption of any other treatment on the goods to render the product marketable to the consumer.

And the word “manufacturer” shall be construed accordingly and shall include not only a a person who employs hired labour in the production or manufacture of excisable goods ,but also any person engages in their production or manufacture on his own account.(section 2(f ) )

 

“Manufacture implies a change, but every change is not a manufacture and yet change of an article is the result of treatment, labour and manipulation. But something is necessary and there must be transformation; a new and different article emerge having a distinctive name and character or use”  . This famous paragraph of an American judgement which was quoted in the Permanent edition of words and phrases is now the basis for determining whether or not an activity or process amounts to manufacture.