Arrow-root powder classification: not an article of food or vegetable preparation for sales tax purposes.

Arrow-root powder sold in packets was analysed for classification under item 103(viii) of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959. The Court's reasoning was that the entry covers articles of food, including preparations of vegetables, only where the product answers that description in its ordinary sense. Arrow-root powder, though derived from a vegetable source and used in some dietary or medicinal contexts, is not a preparation of vegetables merely because it is powdered, and it was not treated as food for classification purposes. It was therefore held outside item 103(viii).

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Issues: Whether arrow-root powder sold in packets is classifiable as an article of food or as a preparation of vegetables so as to fall within item 103(viii) of the First Schedule to the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959.

Analysis: Item 103(viii) applies only to foods, including preparations of vegetables, that satisfy the stated conditions. Arrow-root powder, even if derived from a vegetable source, is not itself a preparation of vegetables merely because it is reduced to powder. The ordinary meaning of food requires something taken to sustain life and provide nourishment, and the product sold here was not treated as falling within that description. The fact that some vegetable products are consumed for medicinal or dietary purposes does not make every such product food for classification purposes.

Conclusion: Arrow-root powder was held not to be an article of food and not to be a preparation of vegetables, and therefore it did not fall under item 103(viii).

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