Commercial parlance test governs tariff classification of food colours, placing them under the residuary excise entry

Food colours were held to be classified according to their common commercial identity and popular understanding, not by a purely technical or dictionary meaning. The materials on record, including food-grade specifications and the Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules, showed that the products were known and used in trade as food colours. Applying the commercial parlance test, they were not understood as synthetic organic dyestuffs under Tariff Item 14D, so classification under the residuary Tariff Item 68 was appropriate.

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Issues: Whether the respondents' products, being food colours, were classifiable as synthetic organic dyestuffs under Tariff Item 14D of the Central Excise Tariff or under the residuary Tariff Item 68.

Analysis: The decisive test was the manner in which the goods were understood in trade and by consumers, not merely their chemical composition or a dictionary meaning. The materials placed on record, including food-grade specifications and the Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules, supported the view that the products were known and used as food colours. The earlier Tribunal decisions relied upon by the Revenue did not deal with food colours and therefore did not conclude the present classification question. Applying the commercial parlance test, the goods were not understood as synthetic organic dyestuffs for the purpose of Tariff Item 14D.

Conclusion: The products were correctly classifiable under Tariff Item 68 and not under Tariff Item 14D, in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: For tariff classification, a product must be classified according to its common commercial identity and popular understanding, and not by a purely technical or dictionary description where the tariff does not define the entry.

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