TOMCO SALES DEPARTMENT KINGSWAY NAGPUR Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE only question for decision is whether cocogem - a cooking medium produced by the Tata Oil Mills Co. Ltd. and sold in sealed containers - is a vegetable oil for the purpose of item 12 of the old unamended Schedule II to the Act, namely, "Serial Description Conditions and exceptions No. of goods subject to which exemption has been allowed. (1) (2) (3) 12 Vegetable oils When sold for human consumption." The Commissioner held that it was not for the following reasons :- "....It seems to me that although the base from which it is prepare may be kopra, it is prepared after a highly complicated process of refinement during which it loses its character as vegetable oil." The Commissioner's order was passed on 31st May, 1949, whereafter apparently the applicant referred the question to the Chief Chemical Analyser to the Bombay Government. A copy of the latter's letter dated 24th June, 1949, has been filed in which the following occurs :- ".....the sample given the same figures of analysis as ordinary cocoanut oil and it has not lost its character as a vegetable oil." Even otherwise, I should have no difficulty in holding that cocogem is a vegetable oil in the sense that it is purely of vegetable origin as opposed to animal origin. The mere fact that, in the course of manufacture, the raw material is subjected to "a highly complicated process of refinement" does not affect the character which it derives from its origin.

(2.) ON a strict interpretation of the words employed, the case, in my view, is in favour of the applicant. At the same time, there is room for doubt whether it was the intention of the Legislature to exempt an article like cocogem from sales tax. This doubt arises partly from the description of the eleven items that precede "vegetable oils" in the old unamended Schedule II, and partly from the amendments which that particular item has undergone on two occasions. I will consider the latter first. Schedule II was amended for the first time by Act XVI of 1949, which came into force on 11th April, 1949. In place of the simple words "vegetable oils" was substituted "vegetable oils except hydrogenated oil" and the entry in column 3 was changed to "when sold in quantities not exceeding twenty seers in a day to any single person." The item itself became No. 14. The second amendment was effected by a notification dated 8th December, 1950, in pursuance of which the item concerning "vegetable oils except hydrogenated oil" (item 14) was removed altogether from Schedule II and was included as item 2 in Part II of Schedule I, which meant that it became liable to sales tax at three pies in the rupee of the taxable turnover. The amendment made on 11th April, 1949, suggests that from the beginning the intention was to exclude hydrogenated oil from the scope of tax-exemption and to confine it to the ordinary or unprocessed vegetable oils consumed generally by the less well-to-do sections of the public. Support is lent to this view when we examine the first eleven items of the old unamended Schedule II - in particular the entries made against items 1 and 6 in column 3. These two are reproduced below :- "Serial Description Conditions and exceptions No. of goods subject to which exemption has been allowed. (1) (2) (3) 1. Grains, cereals Except when sold in sealed and pulses containers. ... ... ... ... ... ... 6. Vegetables Except when sold in sealed containers. The first twelve items are all articles of food exempted from sales tax and it is noteworthy that the exemption ceases to be available when the articles are supplied in sealed containers. Obviously, the intention was that tinned foods, which are generally consumed by the comparatively well-to-do sections of the public, were not to be exempted from tax.