Cattle feed exemption continued for mixed bran and husk goods despite molasses or salt admixture after the 1979 amendment.

The amended sales tax exemption for cattle feed continued to cover mixtures of rice bran, wheat bran, husk, and dust of pulses and grams, even when molasses or salt were added. The amendment of 12 April 1979 did not indicate an intention to withdraw the benefit from mixtures of the enumerated commodities, and the added admixture did not alter their essential character. Applying earlier rulings, the Madras HC held that molasses used as a sweetening agent did not take the goods outside the exemption. The assessment denying exemption was therefore unsustainable, and the petitioner remained entitled to the notified relief.

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Issues: Whether the petitioner's goods, consisting of mixtures of rice bran, wheat bran, husk and dust of pulses and grams with molasses and salt, remained covered by the sales tax exemption notification notwithstanding the amendment of 12 April 1979.

Analysis: The exemption under the notification issued under section 17 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 originally covered cattle feed and was later amended to specify hay or straw, green grass, rice bran, wheat bran, and husk and dust of pulses and grams. The amendment did not show any intention to withdraw the benefit from mixtures of the enumerated commodities. The earlier rulings of the Court had already held that the presence of molasses as a sweetening agent did not alter the character of the cattle feed or take it out of the exemption. The Court held that the 12 April 1979 amendment did not materially change that position, and that mixture of the commodities or admixture of molasses or salt did not exclude them from the exemption.

Conclusion: The petitioner was entitled to the exemption, and the assessment order denying it was unsustainable.

Final Conclusion: The exemption continued to apply to the petitioner's goods, and the impugned assessment could not stand.

Ratio Decidendi: An amendment to an exemption notification does not withdraw the benefit where the enumerated goods retain their essential character and the added admixture does not change that character.

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