Tariff classification under VAT follows accepted Central Excise entry when the notification uses identical tariff language.

Where a Karnataka VAT notification adopted an identical Central Excise tariff description, goods had to be classified consistently with the accepted excise entry. Electronic voting machines and similar goods were treated as automatic data processing machines under Tariff Item 8471 because the tariff heading and chapter note covered their processing and programming capabilities, and the Central Excise authorities had already accepted that classification. The VAT authorities could not reclassify the goods by isolating only one functional aspect when the tariff language was the same. The concessional rate under the notification therefore applied, and the Revenue's challenge to the classification failed.

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Issues: Whether electronic voting machines and similar goods were classifiable as automatic data processing machines under Tariff Item 8471 and the corresponding notification, so as to attract the concessional rate of tax under the Karnataka Value Added Tax regime.

Analysis: The governing notification under the Karnataka Value Added Tax Act specified goods by reference to headings and sub-headings in the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985. The relevant tariff description for Item 8471 covered automatic data processing machines and their units, and the chapter note defined such machines by reference to their processing and programming capabilities. The record showed that the goods in question had been accepted under Tariff Item 8471 by the Central Excise authorities. Where the excise classification had already been accepted and the tariff description in the notification was identical, the VAT authorities could not disregard that classification and reclassify the goods merely by focusing on one aspect of their function.

Conclusion: The goods were rightly treated as falling within Tariff Item 8471 and the corresponding notification entry, and the concessional rate was applicable. The Revenue's challenge to the tax classification failed.

Ratio Decidendi: When a VAT notification adopts an identical Central Excise tariff description, the classification accepted under the Central Excise Tariff is binding on the VAT authorities, and the goods must be classified according to their accepted tariff entry and functional identity.

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