Electrical appliance classification turns on the item as a whole, not separate parts sold independently.

Fluorescent tubes, starters, chokes and phatties sold separately were held not to fall within the entry taxing electrical appliances, because the entry covered the appliance as a whole and did not extend to component parts or accessories. Applying an integrated view of the product, the Court reasoned that an article qualifies only if it is itself capable of rendering the intended service; parts used with the appliance do not become the appliance merely by association. Separate sale of such parts therefore could not attract tax as an electrical appliance, whereas only a composite sale of the complete appliance would fall within the entry.

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Issues: Whether fluorescent tubes, starters, chokes and phatties sold separately, and not as complete electrical appliances, fell within entry 18 of Schedule "A" to the Haryana General Sales Tax Act, 1973 as electrical appliances and were liable to tax at 10 per cent.

Analysis: Entry 18 taxed electrical appliances but did not expressly include component parts or accessories. The decision turned on whether the articles were themselves appliances or merely parts of an appliance. Applying an integrated view, the Court held that an appliance must be capable of rendering the intended service and that materials or component parts should not be mistaken for the appliance itself. Since chokes, phatties and starters do not by themselves serve the purpose of producing light and function only as parts used with the fluorescent tube, they are not electrical appliances when sold separately. The reasoning adopted the view that only a composite sale of the appliance as a whole can attract the entry, while separate sale of its parts cannot.

Conclusion: Fluorescent tubes, starters, chokes and phatties sold separately are not covered by entry 18 of Schedule "A" and are not taxable at 10 per cent as electrical appliances.

Ratio Decidendi: An article falls within the description of an electrical appliance only if, viewed as a whole, it is itself capable of rendering the intended service; component parts or accessories sold separately do not become the appliance merely because they are used with it.

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