Sales tax classification depends on independent commercial identity, not ingredients alone, for table margarine.

Sales tax classification turns on the true nature, ingredients, form and market identity of the product, not on the manufacturer's label or the fact that a scheduled commodity is its principal ingredient. Nutralite table margarine, being a distinct marketable commodity produced by emulsification of palm oil with other ingredients, was treated as having an independent commercial identity. It was therefore held not to answer the description of vegetable oil or hydrogenated vegetable oil under Schedule C, entries 100 or 102, and was classified under the residuary entry in Schedule E, entry 1. The decision confirms that usability alone does not determine classification where the goods have emerged as a separate commercial product.

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Issues: Whether nutralite table margarine is classifiable as vegetable oil under Schedule C, entry 100, as vegetable oil under Schedule C, entry 102, or under the residuary entry.

Analysis: The product was found to be a distinct marketable commodity emerging from emulsification of palm oil with water, salt, milk powder, fatty acids and other ingredients. The Court held that the product did not answer the description of vegetable oil or hydrogenated vegetable oil merely because palm oil was its principal ingredient. The name used by the manufacturer was held to be immaterial, and the true nature, ingredients, form and market identity of the product were treated as decisive. The Court also noted that usability alone was not determinative and that classification depends on whether the goods retain the identity of the entry commodity or emerge as a separate commercial product.

Conclusion: Nutralite table margarine was held not to fall under Schedule C, entry 100 or Schedule C, entry 102, and was classified under the residuary entry, Schedule E, entry 1.

Ratio Decidendi: For sales tax classification, the decisive test is whether the goods have emerged as a distinct marketable commodity with an independent commercial identity, and not merely whether they contain or are derived from an item mentioned in a specific schedule entry.

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