Commercial classification of ice-candy excluded cooked food and confectionery, leaving it taxable only as an unclassified item.

Ice-candy was analysed for sales tax classification by reference to its ordinary commercial understanding. Because it is manufactured by freezing rather than heat, and is not ordinarily taken at meals, it was not treated as cooked food. It also did not qualify as confectionery, since confectionery in common parlance denotes sweetmeats with sugar as the main ingredient, whereas ice is the main ingredient in ice-candy. The item therefore fell outside both notified categories and remained taxable only as an unclassified item.

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Issues: Whether ice-candy was taxable as cooked food or confectionery, or whether it fell to be assessed as an unclassified item.

Analysis: Ice-candy was found to be manufactured by a freezing process and not by the application of heat. It was also not an article generally taken at meals. The expression cooked food, as interpreted in prior decisions, referred to food ordinarily consumed at meal times and not merely articles produced by heat. Confectionery was understood in common parlance to comprise sweetmeats in which sugar is the main ingredient. Since the main ingredient in ice-candy was ice and not sugar, it did not answer the description of confectionery. As the item did not fall within either notified category, it remained outside the specific taxable entries.

Conclusion: Ice-candy was neither cooked food nor confectionery and was liable to be taxed as an unclassified item.

Ratio Decidendi: For sales tax classification, the governing test is the ordinary commercial understanding of the commodity, and an article not ordinarily regarded as cooked food or as confectionery cannot be brought within those entries by strained interpretation.

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