Consumable under sales tax law excludes fuel used in manufacture; concessional tax claim failed.

Natural gas used only as fuel in paper manufacture was held not to be a "consumable" under section 5-B(1) of the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957. The term was construed in context with "raw material", "component part", "sub-assembly part" and "intermediate part" to mean an input consumed in the manufacturing process and not identifiable in the final product. Applying the earlier fuel-use precedent on cashew shells, the court concluded that fuel does not satisfy that description, so the claim to concessional tax failed.

---

---

Issues: Whether natural gas used as fuel in the manufacture of paper and paper products qualifies as a "consumable" under section 5-B(1) of the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957 so as to attract the concessional rate of tax.

Analysis: The expression "consumables" was read in the context of the accompanying words "raw material", "component part", "sub-assembly part" and "intermediate part". On that construction, the term was held to refer to material used as an input in the manufacturing process which is consumed therein and is not identifiable in the final product. Natural gas used only as fuel did not answer that description. The earlier decision concerning cashew shells used as fuel was applied to hold that such fuel does not amount to consumables for the purpose of the provision.

Conclusion: Natural gas used as fuel is not a "consumable" within section 5-B(1), and the claim to concessional tax failed.

---