Sales tax classification turns on commercial sale character, so red lead and zinc oxide were treated as chemicals.

Red lead and zinc oxide were treated as chemicals for sales tax classification because the governing notifications separated "dyes, colours and compositions thereof" from "chemicals of all kinds." Although the goods could broadly be described as colours or pigments, their commercial character, stocking, and sale showed that the assessee dealt with them as chemicals. The applicable fiscal category therefore depended on the article's actual commercial sale character and the manner in which the vendor treated it in trade, not on a possible general description. The higher-rate notification for chemicals accordingly applied.

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Issues: Whether red lead and zinc oxide fell within the expression "dyes and colours" or were classifiable as "chemicals of all kinds" for the purpose of sales tax under the relevant notifications issued under the U.P. Sales Tax Act.

Analysis: The articles were found to be pigments and also chemicals. The governing notifications treated "dyes, colours and the compositions thereof" and "chemicals of all kinds" as separate taxable categories. The Court held that although the goods were capable of being regarded as colours in a general sense, their actual commercial use and the manner in which they were stocked and sold by the assessee showed that they were sold as chemicals, not as colours. In a case where an article may answer more than one description, the proper classification depends on what was in fact sold and how the vendor treated the article in commerce.

Conclusion: Red lead and zinc oxide were held to be chemicals, and the higher-rate notification applicable to chemicals governed their sale.

Final Conclusion: The reference was answered by classifying the disputed goods under the category of chemicals rather than dyes or colours, with costs awarded to the revenue-side authority.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a commodity is capable of falling within more than one fiscal category, it is to be classified for sales tax according to its commercial sale character and the manner in which the vendor treats and sells it.

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