1978 (2) TMI 201

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....adras hereby exempts with effect from the 1st April, 1960, all sales of vegetables other than dried and dehydrated vegetables, fresh fruits, betel and plantain leaves, flowers, eggs, meat and fish (other than canned meat and fish) and the purchases of potatoes from the tax payable under the said Act." The said Act is the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act. The commodity with which we are concerned has been termed as "masi". The method by which "masi" is prepared has been elaborately dealt with in paragraph 6 of the Board's order. It is as follows: "I have carefully examined the objections in the reply and the arguments of the learned counsel with reference to the connected records. To decide the issue, it is necessary to go into the pro....

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....om the procedure outlined by the Institute, it is quite evident that an elaborate process of boiling, smoking, drying and promoting the growth of grey fungus spread over a period of about 3 to 4 weeks is involved. On the other hand, in the process of producing dried fish, the fish is cut and merely salted and dried. In the case of cheaper varieties of dried fish, they are not even cut before salting and drying. The 'masi' has a longer shelf life and fetches considerable higher price. The process of boiling and smoking makes 'masi' a product entirely different from dried fish. Just because in the chain of different stages of processing, drying is involved, it cannot be claimed that 'masi' is also a variety of dried fish. Both are commerciall....