Commercial identity of coffee goods preserved through curing, sustaining export-linked sales tax exemption under the CST Act.

Coffee berry, uncured coffee and cured coffee bean were treated as the same commodity for export-linked exemption under section 5(3) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, because curing did not alter the goods' commercial identity. The relevant sales tax entry covered coffee beans and coffee seeds, whether raw or roasted, and did not create a separate taxable category for coffee berry or uncured coffee. Applying the commercial parlance test, the analysis concluded that processing by curing did not create a different commodity for sales tax purposes, so the exemption was available.

---

---

Issues: Whether coffee berry, uncured coffee, or coffee bean after curing remained the same commodity for the purpose of exemption under section 5(3) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, and whether curing of coffee berries amounted to a transformation so as to deny the exemption.

Analysis: The relevant sales tax entry treated coffee beans and coffee seeds, whether raw or roasted, as coffee, and did not create a separate taxable category for coffee berry or uncured coffee. The decisive test was whether the goods purchased and the goods exported were commercially the same commodity. Although curing involves a manufacturing process in a general sense, the Court distinguished the income-tax ruling relied upon by the Revenue and applied the sales tax principle that identity must be judged in commercial parlance. On that basis, coffee berry, uncured coffee, and cured coffee bean were treated as one and the same commodity for the purpose of export-linked exemption.

Conclusion: The assessee was entitled to exemption under section 5(3) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, because curing did not create a different commodity for sales tax purposes.

Final Conclusion: The revisional and appellate orders were unsustainable, and the assessment accepting the exemption claim stood restored.

Ratio Decidendi: For sales tax exemption on export-linked transactions, a commodity does not lose its identity merely because it undergoes curing or processing if, in commercial parlance and under the relevant taxing entry, it remains the same goods.

---