Photography machinery entry covers photo developing and printing systems, but attached computer and monitor remain outside the tax entry.

Machinery used for photography was held to cover equipment used not only for taking photographs, but also for developing, enlarging and printing images from exposed films and digital chips. An integrated photo developing and printing system used for colour lab operations therefore fell within entry 83(60) to the extent it performed those functions, and the clarification order was set aside accordingly. However, the attached computer and monitor were not photographic machinery and remained outside the entry. The assessing officer was directed to bifurcate the turnover attributable to those items and tax them at the appropriate rate.

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Issues: Whether the mini lab with accessories sold by the assessee answers the description of machinery for photography under entry 83(60) of the Third Schedule to the Kerala Value Added Tax Act, 2003, and whether the turnover attributable to the computer and monitor was separately excludable from that entry.

Analysis: The expression machinery for photography was held to be wide enough to include equipment used not only for taking photographs but also for developing, enlarging and printing photographs from exposed films and digital chips. The machinery sold by the assessee was found to be an integrated photo developing and printing system used for colour photo lab operations, and therefore the part of the equipment used for development and printing answered the statutory description. At the same time, the computer and monitor attached to the system were found not to be photographic machinery, and could not be brought within the scheduled entry.

Conclusion: The clarification order was set aside to the extent it excluded the photo developing and printing machinery from entry 83(60), but the computer and monitor were held outside the entry and the assessing officer was directed to bifurcate their turnover and assess it at the appropriate rate.

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