Children's colouring books treated as books of general interest for exemption under tariff notification.

Children's colouring books were treated as books of general interest for purposes of Notification No. 61/88 because the expression was not defined in the notification and had to be read in contrast to books meant only for specialists. Their intended audience of children did not, by itself, exclude them from that category, so long as they otherwise answered the tariff description of books under Chapter 49. The exemption was therefore available to the children's colouring books.

---

---

Issues: Whether children's colouring books qualify as books of general interest so as to attract the benefit of Notification No. 61/88.

Analysis: Books were recognised as falling within Chapter 49 of the tariff, and the notification itself did not define the expression "books of general interest". The term was construed in contradistinction to books meant only for specialists. The fact that a book is aimed at a limited audience, such as children, does not by itself exclude it from being of general interest if it is otherwise a book within the tariff description. Children's colouring books were therefore treated as books of general interest for the purpose of the exemption.

Conclusion: The benefit of Notification No. 61/88 was held available to the children's colouring books, in favour of the assessee.

---