VAT classification of potato chips turned on inclusive schedule language and the rule against resorting to the residuary entry.

Potato chips were treated as falling within the specific VAT entry for processed or preserved vegetables and fruits rather than the residuary schedule for the period before 16 October 2008. The relevant entry was read in an enlarged, inclusive sense, supported by examples such as jam, pickle, squash, paste and juices, showing that it was not confined to ordinary common parlance. Because the legislature had not excluded potato chips until the later amendment, and contemporaneous administrative understanding treated them as vegetable-based, the product was not to be pushed into the residuary entry where it could reasonably fit the specific one.

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Issues: Whether potato chips manufactured and sold by the assessee were classifiable under entry 80 of Part A of the Second Schedule to the Assam Value Added Tax Act, 2003 as processed or preserved vegetables and fruits, or under the residuary entry in the Fifth Schedule.

Analysis: Entry 80, as amended from time to time, expressly included certain processed fruit and vegetable products and, by later amendment, specifically excluded potato chips only from 16 October 2008. The inclusion of items such as jam, jelly, pickle, fruit squash, paste, fruit drink and fruit juice indicated that the entry was intended to operate with a special or enlarged meaning and not merely by ordinary common parlance. In a taxing entry, where a product can reasonably fall within a specific schedule item, it should not be pushed into the residuary entry. The Court also relied on contemporaneous administrative understanding that potato chips were treated as a vegetable-based product, and held that the absence of any exclusion prior to 16 October 2008 supported inclusion rather than resort to the residuary schedule.

Conclusion: Potato chips were held to fall within entry 80 of Part A of the Second Schedule to the Assam Value Added Tax Act, 2003 and not within the residuary entry in the Fifth Schedule, for the period prior to 16 October 2008.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a fiscal entry is framed in inclusive terms and the legislature has not excluded a commodity, the commodity may be classified within the specific entry if the statutory context shows a special or enlarged meaning, and it should not be relegated to the residuary entry.

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