TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2007 (2) TMI 516
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....not agricultural products. The findings recorded by the Commissioner in Paras 6 to 11 are reproduced herein below : 6.  I have examined the case records and the Appellant's contentions carefully. The crux of the matter is the leviability of AP Cess on the impugned exports of frozen shrimps, under the AP Cess Act, 1940. 7. At the outset, I wish to record that the expert opinion submitted by ICAR and its related bodies cannot be considered simply because ICAR is an "interested party" in that the decision rests on a taxing statute specifically meant to benefit this institution. The objective of the Agricultural Produce Cess Act, 1940 [No. 27 of 1940]; as seen from the preamble to that Act, is to "make better financial provision for....
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....toms Tariff Acts also provides for a distinct classification of the two. 9. In spite of the quashed AP High Court judgment dated 20-2-1999; other judicial pronouncements on the identical issue (distinction between fish/prawn and applicability to the taxing statutes) cannot be ignored. In the case of State of Orissa v. CIFOODS Limited [(1982) 50 STC 152], the Orissa High Court had held that qualitatively, fish and prawn are two different commodities and cannot substitute for each other. This ratio was relied upon subsequently by the same court in [(1988) 68 STC 284] and the AP High Court in the Tax Revision Case No. 388 of 1985 of TBR Exports v. State of AP [1994 (1) An.W.R. 306 (D.B.)]. Even the Apex Court, in the case of State of Raj....
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....dule as they apply in relation to the levy and collection of duty payable to the Central Government under that Act. 10.1 What this section means is that the AP Cess is to be levied on the commodity specified in the Schedule to the AP Cess Act, 1940 exactly as Customs duties would have been administered under the Customs Act, 1962, for the same commodities. The charging section under the Customs Act, 1962, is Section 12, reproduced hereunder for ready reference : SECTION 12. Dutiable goods. - (1) Except as otherwise provided in this Act, or any other law for the time being in force, duties of customs shall be levied at such rates as may be specified under [the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 (51 of 1975)], or any other law for the time being....