Common parlance test limits "bakery products"; savoury and sweet snacks sold by bakers are excluded.

"Bakery products" in the Kerala General Sales Tax Act must be construed in its natural, ordinary and popular sense, not as a label for every item sold by a baker. On that common-parlance test, banana chips, tapioca chips, murukku, achappam, pakkavada, mixture and similar fried or sweet items are not ordinarily understood as bakery goods merely because they are marketed from a bakery. The schedule entries, before and after 1 July 1987, also refer to bakery products excluding bread, and cannot be stretched beyond that ordinary meaning. The Tribunal's contrary view was therefore erroneous.

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Issues: Whether banana chips, tapioca chips, murukku, achappam, pakkavada, mixture and similar fried or sweet items sold by a baker fall within the expression "bakery products" in the First Schedule to the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963.

Analysis: The expression "bakery products" is a word of common usage and must be construed in its natural, ordinary and popular sense, as understood by persons conversant with the subject-matter. The relevant schedule entries, both before and after 1 July 1987, refer to bakery products excluding bread, and the expression cannot be stretched to include every item marketed by a bakery or every article sold by a dealer who is a baker. Goods such as banana chips, tapioca chips, murku, achappam, pakkavada and mixture are not ordinarily understood in common parlance as bakery goods merely because they are sold from a bakery or by a baker.

Conclusion: The items in question do not fall within the entry "bakery products" in the First Schedule to the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963, and the Tribunal's contrary view was erroneous.

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