Specific exemption for cereal by-products prevails over general taxing entry for maize oil and cake.

Maize oil and maize cake, as by-products of maize, were held to fall within the exemption for cereals and their by-products under the relevant sales tax notification and schedule entry. The specific exemption prevailed over the general taxing entry for vegetable or edible oil, so the contrary departmental view was not sustainable and the commodities were to be treated as exempt from sales tax.

---

---

Issues: Whether maize oil and cake, being by-products of maize, were exempt from sales tax under the exemption notification read with the relevant entries in the sales tax legislation, or were taxable under the general taxing entry.

Analysis: Maize is a cereal within section 14 of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, and the exemption notification issued under section 12 of the Madhya Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1958 exempts cereals and by-products of cereals. Entry 91 of Schedule I of the Madhya Pradesh Commercial Tax Act also exempts by-products of cereals and foodgrains. Once the commodity is found to be a by-product of a cereal, the exemption applies. A general taxing entry covering vegetable or edible oil cannot override a specific exemption entry, and the exemption notification cannot be rendered redundant by resorting to the general schedule entry. The view earlier taken by the departmental authority was therefore not sustainable.

Conclusion: Maize oil and cake, being by-products of maize, were exempt from sales tax and not taxable under the general entry.

Final Conclusion: The writ petitions succeeded, the impugned revision orders were quashed, and the assessing authority was directed to make fresh assessments treating the commodities as exempt from sales tax.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a commodity is a by-product of a cereal specifically covered by an exemption notification and the statutory exemption entry, the specific exemption prevails over a general taxing entry.

---