Packing materials include empty bottles for liquid products, allowing concessional tax treatment under the sales tax law.

Empty bottles used by industrial units for packing finished liquid products fall within the expression "packing materials" under section 5(7) of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963. Reading section 5(7) with sections 5(5) and 5(6), the Court treated containers and packing materials as related concepts and noted that the Act expressly included bottles within containers. Relying on judicial precedent and the later statutory and notification-based treatment of glass bottles as packing materials, the Court held that packing is not confined to wrappers for solid goods but extends to receptacles for liquid and semi-liquid articles. The concessional rate applied once the other statutory conditions were satisfied.

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Issues: Whether empty bottles sold to industrial units for use in packing finished products are "packing materials" so as to qualify for concessional tax under section 5(7) of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963.

Analysis: Section 5(7) granted concessional rate of tax on sales of industrial raw materials and packing materials used by industrial units for production or for packing of finished products, subject to the prescribed declaration. The Court read this provision along with section 5(5) and section 5(6), under which containers and packing materials were treated as related concepts, and noted that the word "containers" in the Act expressly included bottles. The Court also relied on the broader understanding of packing materials in judicial precedent, where packing is not confined to wrappers for solid goods but extends to receptacles used for liquid and semi-liquid articles. The later legislative treatment in item 91 of the First Schedule and the notification issued under section 10, which specifically included glass bottles as packing materials, was treated as reflecting the correct understanding of the expression.

Conclusion: Empty bottles used for packing liquid articles are packing materials for the purpose of section 5(7), and the petitioners were entitled to the concessional rate of tax, the other statutory conditions having been satisfied.

Ratio Decidendi: For the purpose of concessional sales tax provisions, "packing materials" includes containers such as empty bottles when they are used for packing liquid products.

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