CHAPTER 85

Electrical machinery and equipment and parts thereof; sound recorders and reproducers, television image and sound recorders and reproducers, and parts and accessories of such articles

NOTES

1. This Chapter does not cover :

(a) electrically warmed blankets, bed pads, foot-muffs or the like; electrically warmed clothing, footwear or ear pads or other electrically warmed articles worn on or about the person;

(b) articles of glass of heading 7011; [OLD- or ]

(c) machines and apparatus of heading 8486;

(d) vacuum apparatus of a kind used in medical, surgical, dental or veterinary purposes (Chapter 90); or

(e) electrically heated furniture of Chapter 94.

(In clause (b) "or" and for clause (c), above clauses has been substituted vide Union Budget 2006-2007 -Finance Bill - With effect from the 01/01/2007)

[OLD-
(c) electrically heated furniture of Chapter 94.]

2. Headings 8501 to 8504 do not apply to goods described in headings 8511, 8512, 8540, 8541 or 8542.

However, metal tank mercury arc rectifiers remain classified in heading 8504.

3. Heading 8509 covers only the following electro-mechanical machines of the kind commonly used for domestic purposes :

(a) floor polishers, food grinders and mixers, and fruit or vegetable juice extractors, of any weight;

(Note 3. clause (a) has been substituted vide Union Budget 2006-2007 -Finance Bill - With effect from the 01/01/2007)

[OLD-
(a) vacuum cleaners, including dry and wet vacuum cleaners, floor polishers, food grinders and mixers, and fruit or vegetables juice extractors, of any weight;]

(b) other machines provided the weight of such machines does not exceed 20 kg.

The heading does not, however, apply to fans and ventilating or recycling hoods incorporating a fan, whether or not fitted with filters (heading 8414), centrifugal clothsdryers (heading 8421), dish washing machines (heading 8422), household washing machines (heading 8450), roller or other ironing machines (heading 8420 or 8451), sewing machines (heading 8452), electric scissors (heading 8467) or to electro-thermic appliances (heading 8516).

4. For the purposes of heading 8523 :

(a) "Solid-state non-volatile storage devices" (for example, "flash memory cards" or "flash electronic storage cards") are storage devices with a connecting socket, comprising in the same housing one or more flash memories (for example, "FLASH E²PROM") in the form of integrated circuits mounted on a printed circuit board. They may include a controller in the form of an integrated circuit and discrete passive components, such as capacitors and resistors;

(b) The term "smart cards" means cards which have embedded in them one or more electronic integrated circuits (a microprocessor, random access memory (RAM) or read-only memory (ROM)) in the form of chips. These cards may contain contacts, a magnetic stripe or an embedded antenna but do not contain any other active or passive circuit elements.

5. For the purposes of heading 8534, "printed circuits" are circuits obtained by forming on an insulating base, by any printing process (for example, embossing, plating up, etching) or by the "film circuit" technique, conductor elements, contacts or other printed components (for example, inductances, resistors, capacitors) alone or interconnected according to a pre-established pattern, other than elements which can produce, rectify, modulate or amplify an electrical signal (for example, semi-conductor elements).

The expression "printed circuits" does not cover circuits combined with elements other than those obtained during the printing process, nor does it cover individual, discreet resistors, capacitors or inductances. Printed circuits may, however, be fitted with non printed connecting elements.

Thin- or thick-film circuits comprising passive and active elements obtained during the same technological process are to be classified in heading 8542.

6. For the purpose of heading 8536, "connectors for optical fibres, optical fibre bundles or cables" means connectors that simply mechanically align optical fibres end to end in a digital line system. They perform no other function, such as the amplification, regeneration or modification of a signal.

7. Heading 8537 does not include cordless infrared devices for the remote control of television receivers or other electrical equipment (heading 8543).

8. For the purposes of headings 8541 and 8542 :

(a) "Diodes, transistors and similar semi-conductor devices" are semi-conductor devices the operation of which depends on variations in resistivity on the application of an electric field;

(b) "Electronic integrated circuits" are :

(i) Monolithic integrated circuits in which the circuit elements (diodes, transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductances, etc.) are created in the mass essentially) and on the surface of a semiconductor or compound semiconductor material (for example, doped silicon, gallium arsenide, silicon germanium, indium phosphide) and are inseparably associated;

(ii) Hybrid integrated circuits in which passive elements (resistors, capacitors, inductances, etc.), obtained by thin - or thick-film technology, and active elements (diodes, transistors, monolithic integrated circuits, etc.), obtained by semiconductor technology, are combined to all intents and purposes indivisibly, by interconnections or interconnecting cables, on a single insulating substrate (glass, ceramic, etc.). These circuits may also include discrete components;

(iii) Multi chip integrated circuits consisting of two or more interconnected monolithic integrated circuits combined to all intents and purposes indivisibly, whether or not on one or more insulating substrates, with or without lead frames, but with no other active or passive circuit elements.

For the classification of the articles defined in this Note, headings 8541and 8542 shall take precedence over any other heading in this Schedule, except in the case of heading 8523, which might cover them by reference to, in particular, their function.

9. For the purposes of heading 8548, "spent primary cells, spent primary cells, spent primary batteries and spent electric accumulators" are those which are neither usable as such because of breakage, cutting-up, wear or other reasons, nor capable of being recharged.

10. For the purposes of heading 8523 "recording" of sound or other phenomena shall amount to manufacture.

(For Note 4,5,6,7 and 8 above Notes 4 to 10 has been substituted vide Union Budget 2006-2007 -Finance Bill - With effect from the 01/01/2007)

[OLD-
4. For the purposes of heading 8534, “printed circuits” are circuits obtained by forming on an insulating base, by any printing process (for example, embossing, plating- up, etching) or by the “film circuit” technique, conductor elements, contacts or other printed components (for example, inductances, resistors, capacitors) alone or interconnected according to a pre-established pattern, other than elements which can produce, rectify, modulate or amplify an electrical signal (for example, semi-conductor elements).

The expression “printed circuits” does not cover circuits combined with elements other than those obtained during the printing process, nor does it cover individual, discreet resistors, capacitors or inductances. Printed circuits may, however, be fitted with non-printed connecting elements.

Thin- or thick-film circuits comprising passive and active elements obtained during the same technological process are to be classified in heading 8542.

5. For the purposes of headings 8541 and 8542 :

(A) “diodes, transistors and similar semi-conductor devices” are semi-conductor devices, the operation of which depends on variations in resistivity on the application of an electric field;

(B) “electronic integrated circuits and micro-assemblies” are :

(a) monolithic integrated circuits in which the circuit elements (diodes, transistors, resistors, capacitors, interconnections, etc.) are created in the mass (essentially) and on the surface of a semi-conductor material (doped silicon, for example) and are inseparably associated;

(b) hybrid integrated circuits in which passive elements (resistors, capacitors, interconnections, etc.), obtained by thin- or thick-film technology, and active elements (diodes, transistors, monolithic integrated circuits, etc.), obtained by semi-conductor technology, are combined to all intents and purposes indivisibly on a single insulating substrate (glass, ceramic, etc.). These circuits may also include discrete components;

(c) micro-assemblies of the moulded module, micromodule or similar types, consisting of discrete, active or both active and passive, components which are combined and interconnected.

For the classification of the articles defined in this Note, headings 8541 and 8542 shall take precedence over any other heading in this Schedule which might cover them by reference to, in particular, their function.

6. Records, tapes and other media of heading 8523 or 8524 remain classified in those headings, when they are presented with the apparatus for which they are intended. This Note does not apply to such media when they are presented with articles other than the apparatus for which they are intended.

7. For the purposes of heading 8548, “spent primary cells, spent primary batteries and spent electric accumulators” are those which are neither usable as such because of breakage, cutting-up, wear or other reasons, nor capable of being recharged.

8. For the purposes of heading 8524 “recording” of sound or other phenomena shall amount to manufacture. ]

SUB-HEADING NOTES

Sub-heading 852712 covers only cassette-players with built-in amplifier, without built-in loudspeaker, capable of operating without an external source of electric power and the dimensions of which do not exceed 170 mm x 100 mm x 45 mm.

(Above Sub-heading Note has been substituted vide Union Budget 2006-2007 -Finance Bill - With effect from the 01/01/2007)

[OLD-
1. Sub-headings 851992 and 852712 cover only cassette-players with built-in amplifier, without built-in loudspeaker, capable of operating without an external source of electric power and the dimensions of which do not exceed 170 mm x 100 mm x 45 mm.

2. For the purposes of sub-heading 8542 10, the term ‘ “smart” cards’ means cards which have embedded in them an electronic integrated circuit (microprocessor) of any type in the form of a chip and which may or may not have a magnetic stripe. ]

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE

For the purposes of heading 8523 [OLD- 8524 ], “Information Technology Software” means any representation of instructions, data, sound or image, including source code and object code, recorded in a machine readable form, and capable of being manipulated or providing interactivity to a user, by means of an automatic data processing machine.

(In Supplementary note the figure "8523" has been substituted vide Union Budget 2006-2007 -Finance Bill - With effect from the 01/01/2007)