Packing materials and ejusdem generis: metallic gas cylinders were treated as entry-taxable containers under the Karnataka schedule.

Metallic gas cylinders were held to fall within Entry 66 of the Karnataka Entry Tax Schedule as packing materials. The Court interpreted the expression broadly to cover containers used for packing, storing and transporting goods, and applied ejusdem generis to the words "and the like" to place steel cylinders in the same class as steel drums and similar containers. It also rejected reliance on a separate sales tax classification, holding that the relevant entry and notifications showed an intention to tax such metallic containers. The cylinders were therefore exigible to entry tax.

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Issues: Whether metallic gas cylinders are exigible to entry tax as packing materials falling under Entry 66 of the First Schedule to the Karnataka Tax on Entry of Goods into Local Areas for Consumption, Use or Sale Therein Act, 1979 read with the relevant notifications.

Analysis: The charging provision levies tax on entry of goods specified in the First Schedule, and Entry 66 covers packing materials including tin plate containers, tin sheets, aluminium foil, aluminium tubes, collapsible tubes, aluminium or steel drums, barrels and crates and the like. The Court treated the expression "packing materials" as broad enough to include containers used for packing and transporting goods, and considered the admitted fact that the cylinders were manufactured out of steel plates and were used for filling and storing LPG. Applying ejusdem generis to the words "and the like", the Court held that the cylinders were of the same class as steel drums and similar packing materials. The Court also declined to exclude them on the basis of the separate classification under sales tax law, holding that the relevant entry and notifications evinced an intention to tax such metallic containers.

Conclusion: Metallic gas cylinders fall within the scope of Entry 66 as packing materials and are exigible to entry tax; the challenge by the Revenue succeeds.

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