Commercial classification of goods under tax entries turns on ordinary meaning and whether items are machinery parts or mill stores.

Pumping sets were treated as taxable machinery after the retrospective amendment to item 52 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, following the binding view that they fell within the amended entry. For classification under "mill stores and hardwares," the ordinary and commercial meaning of the expression was applied, with emphasis on items sharing common characteristics and functioning as small tools or spare parts of machinery. Stone chakki ka patthar was held to be a spare part fitted to the grinding machine and therefore taxable as mill stores, while rubber beltings were not, as they were neither tools nor spare parts in the relevant sense.

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Issues: (i) Whether pumping sets were liable to tax as machinery in view of the retrospective amendment of item No. 52 of the First Schedule to the U.P. Sales Tax Act by the U.P. Sales Tax (Amendment) Act, 1974; (ii) whether stone chakki ka patthar and rubber beltings were covered by the term "mill stores and hardwares" and were taxable as such.

Issue (i): Whether pumping sets were liable to tax as machinery in view of the retrospective amendment of item No. 52 of the First Schedule to the U.P. Sales Tax Act by the U.P. Sales Tax (Amendment) Act, 1974.

Analysis: The issue stood covered by an earlier decision holding that pumping sets fell within the taxable entry as machinery parts after the retrospective amendment. The reference was answered by applying that binding view.

Conclusion: The issue was answered in the affirmative and against the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether stone chakki ka patthar and rubber beltings were covered by the term "mill stores and hardwares" and were taxable as such.

Analysis: The expression "mill stores and hardwares" was held to comprise articles having something common with one another, and the test approved in earlier decisions treated mill stores as items like small tools and spare parts of machinery. Rubber belting did not answer that description because it was neither a tool nor a spare part of machinery and did not qualify as a component part in the relevant sense. Stone chakki ka patthar, however, was found to be fitted to the grinding machine and used as a spare part in the process of grinding flour or surkhi, bringing it within the category of mill stores.

Conclusion: Stone chakki ka patthar was covered by the term "mill stores", but rubber beltings were not; the issue was thus partly in favour of the assessee and partly against the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The reference was answered by upholding taxability of pumping sets and of stone chakki ka patthar, while excluding rubber beltings from the entry "mill stores and hardwares".

Ratio Decidendi: In classifying goods under an entry such as "mill stores and hardwares", the relevant test is the ordinary and commercial understanding of the expression, read with the common characteristics of the items comprised in the category; only articles answering the description of mill stores or spare parts of machinery fall within it.

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