Multi Piece Press button or Snap fasteners used for Manufacture of Readymade garments are Entitled for Benefit under Exemption Notification: CESTAT Allows Excise Duty Benefit to Kitex Garments

The Bangalore bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) allowed excise duty benefit to Kitex Garments on the manufacture of readymade garments by using snap fasteners or buttons which was entitled to benefit under exemption notification. 

Kitex Garments Ltd, the respondent assessee imported snap fasteners under various Bills of Entry and classified the goods under Customs Tariff Heading 9606 1010 by claiming the benefit of Notification No. 21/2002 as Buttons which were used for the manufacture of readymade garments. 

The revenue appealed against the order passed by the Commissioner (Appeals) for rejecting the denial of benefit which was claimed by the assessee. 

K. A. Jathin, the counsel for the revenue contended that the goods imported by the respondent are snap fasteners and not the same as buttons and the benefit claimed by the assessee as the button was not eligible and the denial of benefit by the original authority was as per the law. 

P. R. Venkatesh, the counsel for the assessee contended that Buttons means Knob or Disc intended to fasten together two or more flaps in a garment and the disc could be either a single piece that was passed through a button hole or a multi-piece held together by a built-in device as in the case of snap fasteners imported by the assessee. 

Also submitted that no preference can be laid down between single piece stud buttons and multi piece press buttons or snap fasteners as they are interchangeably called buttons or snap fasteners and both categories of buttons are for the same purpose in the contest of manufacture of readymade garments for export. 

The Bench observed that the benefit of the Notification for snap fasteners was to be allowed and the department had accepted these orders and allowed the benefit of the Notification no 21/2002. 

The two-member bench comprising P A Augustian (Judicial) and Bhagya Devi (Technical) upheld the allowance of benefit to the assessee while dismissing the appeal filed by the revenue. 

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