Commercial identity controls sales tax classification; purchaser use does not change lime's character as a chemical.

For sales tax classification, the controlling test is the ordinary commercial identity of the goods in trade, not the particular use made by a purchaser. Lime was normally understood as a chemical, and the general chemical entry in the schedule was wide enough to include it. Its sale to buyers who used it as a pesticide did not alter its taxable character. Lime was therefore classifiable as a chemical under the relevant schedule entry and not as a pesticide.

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Issues: Whether lime was classifiable as a chemical under entry 79 of the Second Schedule to the Karnataka Sales Tax Act, 1957, or as a pesticide under entry 117 merely because it was sold to and used by purchasers as a pesticide.

Analysis: The decisive factor in commodity classification is the sense in which the goods are ordinarily understood in trade and the normal commercial identity of the article. The use to which a special consumer puts an article is not determinative of its character for sales tax purposes. A goods classification cannot vary from transaction to transaction depending on the individual purchaser's intended use, because the legislative scheme contemplates a stable levy attached to the article as described in the Schedule. On the material before it, lime was normally understood as a chemical, and the specific schedule entry for chemicals of all kinds was wide enough to include it. The fact that the purchasers used it as a pesticide did not alter its commercial identity.

Conclusion: Lime is classifiable as a chemical under entry 79 of the Second Schedule and not as a pesticide under entry 117. The contention that user by the purchasers controlled the classification was rejected.

Ratio Decidendi: For sales tax classification, the commercial identity of the goods in trade prevails, and the particular use made of the goods by a purchaser does not change their taxable character.

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