Strict construction of exemption notifications kept cooked food supplies to airlines outside the sales tax exemption.

An exemption for cooked food and beverages under S.R.O. No. 1003 of 1991 was confined to sales or service in hotels and restaurants satisfying the notification's stated conditions. On that express wording, cooked food supplied to air companies for service in aircrafts did not fall within the exempt category because the sales were outside the specified premises and conditions. The notification could not be expanded by implication, and the later insertion of a specific entry for airline services did not show that such supplies had been exempt earlier. The supply was therefore taxable in the absence of a specific exemption.

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Issues: Whether cooked food supplied by a dealer to air companies for service in aircrafts was entitled to exemption under S.R.O. No. 1003 of 1991 issued under section 10 of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963.

Analysis: The notification granted exemption to cooked food and beverages only when sold or served in hotels and restaurants other than bar attached or star hotels and restaurants, subject to the conditions stated in the notification. The exemption was treated as commodity-specific as well as condition-specific, and the wording did not support treating sales to air companies for in-flight service as sales covered by the exemption. The notification could not be read as a charging provision, and the subsequent introduction of a specific entry for sale of cooked food and beverages to airline services was held not to show that such sales were exempt earlier.

Conclusion: Cooked food sold to air companies for service in aircrafts was not entitled to exemption under the notification and was taxable.

Ratio Decidendi: An exemption notification must be construed according to its express terms, and where exemption is confined to sales or service in specified premises, sales outside those premises do not qualify for exemption and fall within the taxable field, including under the residuary entry if no specific exemption applies.

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