Commercial parlance governs customs exemption classification for metallised polyester films imported in roll form; films kept their exemption.

Metallised polyester films imported in roll form were treated as a distinct tariff and trade category, not as "sheets", "foils" or "other rectangular or profile shapes" within the exclusion table of the customs exemption notification. The Court applied commercial parlance and trade identity, noting that plastics notifications and tariff materials consistently distinguished plates, sheets, films and foils. Because roll-form material of indefinite length is not ordinarily understood as a sheet, and the exclusion wording could not be stretched by strained interpretation, the goods remained classifiable as films. The exemption under Section 25(1) of the Customs Act was therefore available and the assessee succeeded.

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Issues: Whether metallised polyester films imported in roll form fell within the excluded categories of "sheets", "foils" or "other rectangular or profile shapes" in the exemption notification, or whether they were independently recognised "films" entitled to exemption.

Analysis: The exemption under Section 25(1) of the Customs Act, 1962 was available to articles made of plastics unless they specifically answered one of the enumerated descriptions in the exclusion table. The notification and allied tariff materials treated plates, sheets, films and foils as distinct categories, and several excise and customs notifications used the same distinction. The Court relied on trade understanding and commercial identity rather than technical or scientific definitions, holding that in the market the goods were known as films. It further held that roll-form material of indefinite length could not be treated as sheets, and that the expression "other rectangular or profile shapes" could not be stretched so far as to include articles imported as films merely because they might be cut into rectangular pieces later.

Conclusion: The goods were classifiable as films and did not fall within the exclusion table. The assessee was entitled to the exemption, and the appeals failed.

Ratio Decidendi: For exemption classification under a customs notification, the commercial or trade understanding of the article governs, and a product specifically recognised in trade as a distinct category cannot be brought within general exclusionary expressions by technical or strained interpretation.

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