Commercial identity of fish-meal governs tax exemption; possible poultry-feed use does not alter its exempt status.

Fish-meal was treated according to its commercial identity and recognised market use, and was held to fall within the exempt category as manure under the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, 1954. The buyer's status as a poultry-feed dealer, or the possibility that the material could also be used as feed, was held immaterial to taxability. A commodity does not lose its character as fish-meal merely because one of its uses is poultry feed, and the wider exemption therefore applied. The department's revision failed.

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Issues: Whether fish-meal was liable to sales tax under the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, 1954, or was exempt as a manure notwithstanding that the purchaser dealt in poultry feed and may have intended to use it as feed.

Analysis: The disputed commodity was examined by its commercial identity and use in the market. Fish-meal was treated as a commodity usable as manure and, therefore, within the exempted category. The fact that the buyer was a poultry-feed dealer, or that the material might also be used as feed, was held to be immaterial for determining its taxability. The court held that a commodity does not lose its character as fish-meal merely because one of its uses is poultry feed, and the wider exemption covered it.

Conclusion: The commodity was held to be exempt from tax and the revision by the department failed.

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