DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF SALES TAX LAW BOARD OF REVENUE TAXES ERNAKULAM SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION Vs. FOOD SPECIALITIES LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE tax revision cases arise from a common order passed in Appeal Nos. 541, 542, 543 and 544 of 1988. THESE cases relate to different assessment years, viz. , 1983-84, 1984-85, 1985-86 and 1986-87. THESE assessee is engaged in the sale of three products - Nescafe, Ricory and Sunrise - manufactured by them. Nescafe is a pure instant coffee. Ricory is an instant coffee which is a compound of 70 per cent coffee and 30 per cent chicory blend. Sunrise is also an instant coffee powder with 80 per cent coffee and 20 per cent chicory blend.

(2.) THE assessments for 1983-84, 1984-85 and 1985-86 were originally completed treading these three items as coffee. THEse assessments were revised under section 19 of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963, treating these three items as beverages or non-alcoholic drinks falling under entry 33 of the First Schedule to the Act. For the assessment year 1986-87, the taxing officer assessed the turnover of the sale of these items on the same lines under entry 33 of the First Schedule to the Act.

(3.) ENTRY 21 makes it clear that that entry is a specific entry referable to coffee and any one of the forms of coffee. There is no difficulty for us to hold that entry 21 is a particular entry and that when there is a particular or specific entry in a fiscal statute, the general entry has to give way to the specific entry. So, we have to examine whether this particular entry is applicable in the case of the items now sought to be taxed.