Gur badda classification for sales tax: treated as distinct from molasses and taxed at the lower gur rate.

Classification of gur badda for sales tax purposes was treated as distinct from molasses, following earlier authority recognising that separation. The Court confined itself to the referred issue and declined to decide whether gur badda was the same as gur, because the department had accepted that, if it was not molasses, the lower rate applicable in the relevant year would follow. Gur badda was therefore held not to be molasses, and the assessee's turnover was taxable at 2% rather than 3%.

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Issues: Whether gur badda was liable to be treated as molasses for the purpose of sales tax, or as a different commodity taxable at the lower rate applicable to gur.

Analysis: The question turned on the proper classification of gur badda. The Court noted that the commodity had already been distinguished from molasses in earlier authority and that the department itself accepted that, if gur badda was not molasses, it would attract the lower rate applicable in the relevant year. The Court therefore declined to go into the further question whether gur badda was the same as gur, and confined its answer to the issue referred.

Conclusion: Gur badda was not molasses. The assessee's turnover of gur badda was taxable only at 2 per cent and not at 3 per cent.

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