Tax classification of electric pump sets: machinery powered by electricity was held outside electrical appliances and moved to the residuary entry.

Pumps coupled with electric motors and mono-block pump sets sold for agricultural use were held not to fall within the agricultural machinery entry because that entry expressly excluded electric motors and electric pumping sets. They also did not fall within the entry for electrical instruments, apparatus and appliances, since those words, read in their cognate sense and in common parlance, refer to small specialised devices and not machinery or plant. Applying noscitur a sociis and the common parlance rule in a taxing statute, the goods were therefore classified under the residuary entry.

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Issues: Whether pumps coupled with electric motors and mono-block pump sets sold for agricultural purposes fall under entry 18(i) of Part I of Schedule C, entry 44(b) of Part II of Schedule C, or the residuary entry 102 of Part II of Schedule C to the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959.

Analysis: Entry 18(i) specifically excluded electric motors and electric pumping sets, so the goods did not fall within the agricultural machinery entry. Entry 44(b) covered electrical instruments, apparatus and appliances. The terms were construed in their cognate sense, taking colour from each other, and in common parlance they denoted small, specialised implements or devices rather than machinery or plant. Applying noscitur a sociis and the common parlance rule in taxing statutes, items commonly understood as machinery could not be brought within entry 44(b merely because they were operated with electrical power.

Conclusion: The goods were not covered by entry 18(i) or entry 44(b) and fell under the residuary entry 102 of Part II of Schedule C. The question referred was answered in favour of the assessee and against the Revenue.

Ratio Decidendi: In a taxing entry, machinery operated by electricity is not treated as an electrical instrument, apparatus or appliance unless the statutory language clearly brings it within that class; excluded items must then fall to the residuary entry.

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