By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JULY 22, 2015: CLASSIFICATION of the machines known as Risograph, which are imported by the appellant M/s. HCL Limited, is the issue involved in the present appeal. The question is as to whether Risograph is an office machine having duplicating function and thus to be classified under sub-heading 8472.90 of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 or is it a printing machine to fall under sub-heading 8443.50.

As per the appellant-assessee, Risograph machine is a printing machine which should be covered by sub-heading 8443.50, namely, 'other printing machinery'. On the other hand, the respondent-Revenue has taken the position that it is a specie of duplicating machine and falls under the sub-heading 8472.90, viz. 'Other'. Though under both the sub-headings the import duty is 65%, however, insofar as printing machinery is concerned, by virtue of Notification No. 59/94-CUS dated March 01, 1994, which includes Chapter Heading 84.43, the duty is to be calculated at the rate of 25% ad valorem. That is the precise reason behind the present lis between the parties.

The Supreme Court observed,

Risograph machine consists of an automatic digital scanner, a thermal head and a printing station. The prints of tex / images which can be taken from these Risographs can be suitably enlarged or reduced as per the user. The scanner portion of the Risograph consists of a photo sensor comprising of light emitting diodes and photo detectors. The light emitted from these diodes strike the original. The light falling on the dark areas of the original are absorbed. The photo detector then detects the reflected light and reads the white and black area of the original as read by image scanner. The image thus formed by the scanner is a digital image and not an optical image or continuous image. From the scanner, image signals are transferred to thermal head. The thermal head is used to make master necessary for printing, based on the signals received from the image scanner. The thermal head carrying the signal received from the scanner touches the plastic film portion of the master. Since the film is heat sensitive, the plastic film melts while the base paper remains unaffected, thus, forming the image of the original documents on the base paper. This constitutes the master used for subsequent printing. The master material consists of film based on polyester plastic material boded with long fibre Japanese type paper (through which ink can penetrate). The master film is a few microns in thickness and is, thus, thin. The polyester based material is bonded to the long fibre Japanese type paper by co-polymerization. The plastic film used is heat sensitive. The paper is basically cellulose web through which ink can penetrate. The master material is in the form of a roll of paper. The paper is drawn from the roll and thermal head prepares the master. The prepared head is cut from the master and wound on the drum. The surface of the drum is a fine mesh of steel wire so as to allow ink to pass through the drum as well as the master while printing. A squeegee roller is fitted against the drum. Ink gets filled between the squeegee roller and steel mesh of the drum. During printing the squeegee roller rotates thereby forcing the ink to pass through first, the drum surface, then to the master and then on to the paper to be printed.

From the aforesaid description of the process adopted in Risograph machine, it becomes apparent that Risograph printing process is more akin to screen printing . As already pointed out above, the screen printing process requires a stencil and a screen, with the stencil carrying the design to be printed. This stencil is mounted against the screen. The printing itself takes place when the ink is squeegeed through the stencil onto the screen and ultimately onto the paper. It is the screen which holds the image area, which can carry either a pictorial or typographic material. Similarly, in the case of a Risograph , the long fibre Japanese type paper is the master through which the ink is pressed to reproduce the image or text. The screen printing stencil prepared is equivalent to the plastic film coating on the cellulose fibre of Risograph master. Thus, the principles adopted for printing in the Risograph is akin to that found in screen printing .

It is difficult to equate Risograph machine with duplicating machine. Duplicating, as opposed to photocopying, requires the preparation of a master sheet which makes duplicates on a machine.

Held: Risograph machine is in the nature of a screen printing machine and not duplicating machine. It would, therefore, be covered under sub-heading 84.43 and not 84.72.

(See 2015-TIOL-152-SC-CUS)