Popular parlance test for tax exemptions excludes ripened coconut from "fresh fruit" or "vegetable" exemption.

In construing a sales tax exemption for "fresh fruit" or "vegetable", the Court applied the common or popular parlance test rather than botanical classification. Although ripened coconut may be treated as a fruit in science and may be sold in a vegetable market, it is not ordinarily understood by household consumers as a fresh fruit or vegetable for everyday use. On that basis, ripened coconut did not fall within the exemption, and sales tax remained payable.

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Issues: Whether ripened coconut with or without husk falls within the exemption for "fresh fruit" or "vegetable" under the sales tax notification.

Analysis: In construing entries in revenue statutes, the words used are to be understood in their popular or commercial sense and not in their scientific or botanical sense, unless the enactment defines them otherwise. Applying that approach, a coconut may be a fruit in the botanical sense and may be sold in a vegetable market, but it is not ordinarily understood by a householder as a "fresh fruit" or a "vegetable" for everyday use at the table. The evidence also did not establish that ripened coconut had the requisite popular understanding to bring it within the exemption.

Conclusion: Ripened coconut is not covered by the exemption as "fresh fruit" or "vegetable", and the sales tax liability remained.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a taxing exemption uses ordinary household articles without definition, the expression must be construed according to common or popular parlance, and an item not ordinarily understood in that sense does not qualify for exemption.

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