Commodity classification controls agricultural cess levy on shrimps and prawns; separately classified goods cannot be taxed as fish.

Agricultural produce cess was held not leviable on exported frozen shrimps and prawns because the levy under the 1940 Act had to follow the commodity's own statutory classification and the customs-law machinery adopted by Section 5A. Shrimps and prawns were recognised as distinct from fish in biological, commercial, and tariff terms, so they could not be taxed as fish or as an equivalent commodity merely because of similarity in use or character. The assessment was therefore unsustainable to that extent and liable to be set aside.

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Issues: Whether agricultural produce cess was leviable on exported frozen shrimps and prawns, and whether the distinction between fish and shrimps/prawns under the customs tariff regime governed the levy under the Agricultural Produce Cess Act, 1940.

Analysis: The levy depended on the commodity description in the schedule to the Agricultural Produce Cess Act, 1940 and the manner in which customs duty provisions are applied by Section 5A of that Act. The goods were treated as distinct biologically and commercially from fish, and the customs tariff classification also separately recognised fish and shrimps/prawns under different tariff headings. Since Section 5A adopts the customs law framework for levy and collection, the distinction in the tariff classification had to be carried through while applying the cess. On that footing, the impugned cess on shrimps and prawns could not be justified as a levy on fish or on an equivalent commodity.

Conclusion: The cess was not leviable on the exported shrimps and prawns, and the assessment to that extent was liable to be set aside.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a taxing statute applies customs-law machinery through an incorporation provision, the commodity must be assessed according to its distinct statutory classification; a separately classified commodity cannot be taxed by treating it as a different item merely by similarity in use or character.

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