SANJIB BANERJEE, J. - (1.) The issue involved in all the matters is the same: whether bitumen emulsion should be regarded as bitumen and covered by Entry 14 of the list of goods taxable at five per cent in Part -I of Schedule C to the West Bengal Valued Added Tax Act, 2003.
(2.) Bitumen is mainly used for road construction, road repair, roofing and similar purposes. There are several variants of bitumen in use for a considerable period, viz, polymer modified bitumen (PMB), crumb rubber modified bitumen (CRMB) and bitumen emulsion. Bitumen it its original form is a solid and it melts at a high temperature. Traditionally, bitumen has been used for road construction for long and the sight and smell of bitumen is one of the everlasting memories of long -distance road travel in India.
(3.) For its convenient use, bitumen is now increasingly marketed in an emulsified form so that solid bitumen is not required to be brought to its molten state at high temperatures at the time of its application. Emulsifiers are added to bitumen and certain other chemicals are mixed therewith for bitumen emulsion to be produced as a fine dispersion of minute droplets of one liquid in another in which it is not soluble or miscible. There is undoubtedly a chemical change that is brought about in bitumen being treated with emulsifiers and other chemicals, but the end product of bitumen emulsion has similar use as bitumen; except that solid bitumen no longer needs to be brought to a molten state for its application and bitumen emulsion can be used as a substitute for molten bitumen.;