Rice-derived product classification under sales tax law turns on character, not eventual use, for concessional treatment.

Rice starch made from contaminated rice was held to fall within the expression "rice product" in the proviso to section 3(1) of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959, because the proviso covered rice-derived products by character and did not limit the concession to edible items. The court treated the product's source and inherent character as decisive, and held that its eventual use was irrelevant where no express restriction to edibles appeared in the provision. On that construction, the concessional rate of 1 per cent applied and the revision was not maintainable.

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Issues: Whether rice starch made from contaminated rice is a "rice product" within the proviso to section 3(1) of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959, and therefore taxable at the concessional rate of 1 per cent.

Analysis: The proviso granted the lower rate to foodgrains and to specified rice products, such as rice flour and rice bran, but it did not confine the expression "rice product" to edible items. The product in question was found to have been derived from rice and was comparable, in character, to other rice-derived products expressly mentioned in the proviso. The manner in which the product might be used was held to be irrelevant; what mattered was the quality and character of the product itself. In the absence of any express restriction limiting the proviso to edibles, no such limitation could be read into it.

Conclusion: Rice starch made from contaminated rice falls within the expression "rice product" in the proviso to section 3(1), and the concessional rate of 1 per cent was correctly applied. The revision was therefore not maintainable.

Final Conclusion: The taxing provision was construed to cover the product on the basis of its character as a rice-derived item, resulting in the assessee retaining the concessional rate of tax.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a taxing proviso grants a concessional rate to specified products without limiting them to edibles, the product's character as the stated commodity, and not its eventual use, determines eligibility for the concession.

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