Specific sales tax entry prevails over general beverage entry for coffee and coffee-chicory blends.

Pure instant coffee and coffee blended with chicory were held to fall within the specific sales tax entries for coffee and French coffee in the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, not the broader entry for non-alcoholic drinks and beverages. Entry 21 covered coffee and its forms, including coffee powder, while entry 21A specifically covered French coffee as an admixture of coffee and chicory. Applying settled classification principles, the specific entries prevailed over the general residuary description. Pure coffee was classified under entry 21, and coffee-chicory blends were classified under entry 21A.

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Issues: Whether pure instant coffee and instant coffee blended with chicory were classifiable under the specific entries for coffee and French coffee in the First Schedule to the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963, or under the general entry for non-alcoholic drinks and beverages.

Analysis: Entry 21 was a specific entry covering coffee and its forms, including coffee powder, while entry 21A specifically covered French coffee, namely, an admixture of coffee and chicory. The general entry relating to non-alcoholic drinks and beverages could not displace these specific entries. Nescafe being pure coffee fell squarely within entry 21. Ricory and Sunrise, being blends of coffee and chicory, fell squarely within entry 21A. On settled classification principles, a specific tariff entry governs over a general one where the goods are clearly covered by the specific description.

Conclusion: The classification adopted by the Tribunal was correct. Nescafe was taxable under entry 21, and Ricory and Sunrise were taxable under entry 21A. The revision petitions were liable to be dismissed.

Final Conclusion: The challenge to the Tribunal's classification failed, and the assessee succeeded on the tax classification issue.

Ratio Decidendi: Where goods are specifically covered by a particular entry in a fiscal schedule, they cannot be shifted to a general residuary or broader entry merely because they may also possess characteristics of that broader class.

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