Tobacco exemption interpretation: seed oil and seed cake fall outside the statutory meaning of tobacco.

The exemption for "tobacco" under the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act was confined to the statutory definition incorporated from the excise laws, which was treated as exhaustive because it used both "means" and "includes". That definition covered tobacco in cured, uncured, manufactured and unmanufactured forms, including leaves, stalks and stems after severance from the earth, but not seeds. Tobacco seed oil and tobacco seed cake, being products derived from seeds, were therefore outside the exemption. The amended legislative scheme was read as narrowing the earlier wider exemption, so the claim for sales tax exemption failed.

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Issues: Whether tobacco seed oil and tobacco seed cake are entitled to exemption from sales tax as "tobacco" under the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957, as amended.

Analysis: The exemption provision in Section 8 of the Act operated with reference to the goods specified in the Fourth Schedule, and the amended entry, read with its explanation, adopted the meaning assigned in the Additional Duties of Excise (Goods of Special Importance) Act, 1957 and, through it, the definition of "tobacco" in Item 4 of the First Schedule to the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944. That definition was treated as exhaustive because it used both the words "means" and "includes". The inclusive part specifically mentioned leaves, stalks and stems after severance from the earth, while omitting seeds. The ordinary and statutory meaning of "tobacco" in its cured, uncured, manufactured and unmanufactured forms was held not to extend to tobacco seed, and still less to oil and cake produced by crushing the seed. The amended legislative scheme also showed a narrowing of the earlier wider exemption, reinforcing the conclusion that seed oil and seed cake were not intended to be covered.

Conclusion: Tobacco seed oil and tobacco seed cake do not fall within the exemption for "tobacco", and the claim for sales tax exemption fails.

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