Common parlance test for pesticide classification covers a product used to kill micro-organisms in agriculture.

Streptomycin Sulphate 90% W/W + Tetracycline Hydro Chloride 10% W/W, used for agricultural purposes, was held classifiable under sub-heading 3808.10 rather than 3808.90. The product was manufactured under a licence and registration issued under the Insecticides Act, 1968, and the record showed preventive as well as curative use. Applying common parlance, and relying on Supreme Court authority that products killing bacteria can fall within the wider description of pesticide, the product was treated as answering that description because its function was to kill micro-organisms.

---

---

Issues: Whether Streptomycin Sulphate 90% W/W + Tetracycline Hydro Chloride 10% W/W, used for agricultural purposes, was classifiable under sub-heading 3808.10 as an insecticide, fungicide, herbicide, weedicide or pesticide, or under sub-heading 3808.90 as other goods.

Analysis: The product was manufactured under a licence and registration issued under the Insecticides Act, 1968, and the record showed its preventive as well as curative use. Heading 38.08 covers disinfectants and similar products, and the controlling principle applied was the common parlance understanding of the product. On the authority of the Supreme Court decision dealing with disinfectants that kill bacteria, a product used for killing bacteria can broadly fall within the word pesticide. Even if treated as a disinfectant, it would still answer the description of pesticide where its function is to kill micro-organisms.

Conclusion: The product was classifiable under sub-heading 3808.10 and not under sub-heading 3808.90.

---