2013 (5) TMI 768

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..... . Baruah For the Respondents : The Standing Counsel, Finance and Taxation and R. Dubey ORDER:- The order of the court was made by A.K. GOEL C.J.-This petition seeks quashing of order dated November 17, 2012, passed by the Commissioner of Taxes, Assam under section 105 of the Assam Value Added Tax Act, 2003 declaring that the item "Madhusudhan brand milk powder" containing added sugar and fat .....

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..... 05 of the Act from the Commissioner of Taxes by submitting that since in the common parlance the product was known as skimmed milk powder, the Department could not take a different stand merely because the product did not have low fat. According to the petitioner, the criteria of low fat could not be applied for declaring the product to be not skimmed milk powder. The Commissioner did not accept t .....

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..... powder because skimmed milk powder has to contain less fat. The petitioner also submitted that even certain items are added to milk it will remain milk. Thus if milk fat and sugar is added to skimmed milk powder, it will still remain skimmed milk powder. The submission of the petitioner is not justified as under the AVAT Act two separate category of milk powder is taken into account on the basis .....

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..... ing to the process of manufacture as mentioned in the writ petition, it is submitted that it contains maximum 10 per cent fat and 20 per cent sugar. On due consideration, we are unable to accept the submission. There is no dispute with the legal proposition that common parlance meaning has to be given instead of a technical meaning while interpreting entry in a fiscal statute as the fiscal statu .....

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..... e than five per cent moisture. The product of the petitioner contained 10 per cent fat. While the standard prescribed need not always be conclusive if it is patently against common understanding, such standard could certainly be taken into account to ascertain common sense meaning of a product. There is no material to indicate that milk powder containing 10 per cent fat was to be treated as skimm .....

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