Paint classification turns on ordinary and technical meaning: pigment powders and emulsions were treated as ingredients, not paints.

Pigment powders and pigment emulsions were considered in the context of sales tax classification under entry 39 of Schedule C to the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959. Construing the entry in its ordinary and technical sense, and applying ejusdem generis with the associated words "lacquers" and "varnishes", the court treated the entry as covering coating substances capable of direct application, not materials used to manufacture paint. As pigments are ingredients rather than paint itself, dry pigment powders and pigment emulsions sold for textile printing did not fall within "paints" and were not taxable under that entry; the assessee therefore succeeded on classification.

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Issues: Whether pigment powders and pigment emulsions, after the amendment with effect from 1 April 1961, fell within the term "paints" in entry 39 of Schedule C to the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959, or were assessable under the residuary entry 22 of Schedule E.

Analysis: The expressions "pigment powders" and "pigment emulsions" were treated as technical commodities, but the Court held that even on common parlance as well as technical usage they were not themselves paints. A pigment is an ingredient used in making paint and not paint itself. Entry 39, read in context with the associated words "lacquers" and "varnishes", was construed ejusdem generis as referring to coating substances capable of direct application, not to materials used in manufacture of paint. Pigment powders, being dry colouring substances, and pigment emulsions, being sold for textile printing and not as paints, therefore did not answer the description of paints.

Conclusion: Pigment powders and pigment emulsions did not fall within entry 39 of Schedule C and were not taxable as paints; they were not excluded from the residuary entry on that ground, so the answers were in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: A commodity that is merely an ingredient or raw material used in the manufacture of paint does not become "paint" for sales tax classification, and a taxing entry must be construed according to the ordinary or technical meaning of the goods in context, including ejusdem generis where the setting so requires.

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