Trade parlance controls exemption entries: tin alloy foil with minor admixtures fell within tin foil under the notification.

In construing an exemption notification, the expression "tin foil" was read in trade and common parlance rather than with a technical metallurgical approach. Foil with tin as the predominant constituent, but containing minor admixtures of lead and antimony, remained within the notification because it was understood in the relevant trade by the name of its principal metal and was used in capacitor manufacture. The later notification referring expressly to tin alloy foil was treated as confirming the practical width of the earlier entry. The denial of concessional customs duty and refund was therefore unsustainable, and the imported foil was held covered by the exemption.

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Issues: Whether tin alloy foil with a small admixture of other metals could be treated as "tin foil" for the purpose of Notification No. 30/81 dated 1-3-1981, and whether the assessee was entitled to concessional customs duty and refund.

Analysis: The relevant notification extended partial exemption to tin foil for manufacture of plastic film capacitors. The imported goods were described in the invoice and bill of entry as tin foil, though their composition showed a small admixture of lead and antimony with tin as the predominant constituent. The Court applied the settled principle that fiscal entries and exemption notifications are to be understood in the sense in which the trade and ordinary users understand them. Since foils of this kind were used in the capacitor industry and were known in trade by the name of their predominant constituent, the added alloying elements did not take the goods outside the description "tin foil". The later notification extending the concession to tin alloy foil was treated as confirming the practical difficulty caused by an unduly technical reading, not as negating the wider trade meaning of the earlier entry.

Conclusion: The imported foil was covered by Notification No. 30/81 and the denial of concessional assessment was unsustainable, in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The impugned order was set aside and the appeal was allowed with consequential relief.

Ratio Decidendi: In construing an exemption entry in a fiscal notification, the expression must be understood in its trade and common parlance sense, and a product with minor alloying elements may still fall within the description of the predominant metal named in the notification.

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