Commercial classification of ball point pen holders without refills excluded them from the ball point pen exemption.

Exemption under the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957 was confined to goods covered by the relevant Government Order, namely ball point pens. Ball point pen holders sold without refills were not treated as ball point pens, because refills were an essential component and the commodity had to be understood in its ordinary commercial sense. The classification argument that the holder alone matched the exempted item was rejected, and the exemption claim failed on the merits of that product description.

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Issues: Whether the dealer was entitled to exemption on the turnover relating to sale of ball point pen holders under G.O. Ms. No. 130, Revenue dated 14 February 1989, and whether ball point pen holders without refills could be treated as ball point pens for the purpose of exemption.

Analysis: The exemption under section 9(1) of the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957 applied only to the goods covered by the Government Order, namely ball point pens. The evidence accepted by the Tribunal showed that the assessee had manufactured only pen holders without refills and that refills were an essential component of a ball point pen. The claim that the holder alone answered the description of a ball point pen was rejected on the basis of the ordinary and commercial understanding of the commodity, and the contention based on non-supply of departmental material was not accepted because the denial of exemption rested on the merits of the classification issue.

Conclusion: The dealer was not entitled to exemption, as ball point pen holders without refills did not fall within the exemption for ball point pens.

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