Binding administrative circulars and contemporaneous tariff interpretation sustained 4 per cent classification of clay pickle jars under the correct entry.

A Commissioner's circular fixing tax at 4 per cent for clay pickle jars, issued under the applicable statutory power and in force for the assessment year, bound officers implementing the Act and could not be ignored by the revisional authority. The circular also served as a contemporaneous exposition of the competing tariff entries where the description of the goods was unclear, and the consistent assessment of the same assessee's turnover in earlier years supported continuation of the same classification. The sale of pickle jars was therefore assessable under Entry 118 at 4 per cent, and classification under Entry 112 was unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether the Commissioner's circular fixing tax at 4 per cent for clay pickle jars was binding on the statutory authorities and whether such jars were classifiable under Entry 118 of the Second Schedule rather than Entry 112.

Analysis: The circular was issued under the statutory power corresponding to section 3-A and was in force for the relevant assessment year. Instructions issued by the Commissioner are binding on officers and persons executing the Act, and the revisional authority could not ignore a subsisting administrative direction merely because it preferred a different classification. The circular also supplied a contemporaneous exposition of the competing entries, which was a legitimate aid where the description of the article and the boundary between the two entries were not plain. In addition, the consistent treatment of the same assessee's turnover in earlier years supported the same classification, and no adequate reason was shown to depart from that settled approach.

Conclusion: The turnover from sale of pickle jars had to be assessed under Entry 118 at 4 per cent, and the contrary classification under Entry 112 was unsustainable, in favour of the assessee.

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