TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2016 (7) TMI 1057
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.... within the ambit of entry tax. 2. The facts giving rise to the present appeal are the respondent is a manufacturer of hair oil, edible oil, Mediker and Starch (Revive) and other products and is a registered dealer under the Madhya Pradesh Commercial Tax Act, 1994, as well as a dealer under the E.T. Act. The Assistant Commissioner, Commissioner Tax Division II, Indore vide order dated 28.04.2003 imposed entry tax on Mediker treating it as a hair shampoo and "Revive Instant Starch" as a chemical; and as the tax was not paid, interest and penalty were also levied. Being grieved by the aforesaid order the respondent-company preferred Review case No. 80/2003 before the Additional Commissioner, Commercial Tax, Indore. It was contended before the said authority that the entry tax imposed on the assessee on Mediker, which is meant for anti-lice treatment, was illegal being not permissible under any of the entries mentioned in Schedule II of the E.T. Act and there was no material on record to treat starch as a chemical. It was also urged that Mediker is a medicine and hence, it did not attract entry tax. The said submissions were repelled and tax was imposed and on that basis penalty an....
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....s and the product is marketed as "Mediker anti-lice treatment". It is urged by him that Mediker anti-lice treatment is manufactured after obtaining the drug licence under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 (for short, "the 1940 Act") wherein it has been classified as a drug falling under Section 3(b) of the 1940 Act. It is contended by him that that "Mediker anti-lice treatment" satisfies the definition of the drug and after due scrutiny, the drug control authorities have granted licence for the said product as a drug. Mr. Bagaria would submit that period of treatment is four weeks and shampooing is only a method to apply the medicine. In essence, the submission of learned senior counsel is that the medium cannot determine the nature of the product. He has commended us to certain authorities of this Court as well as CESTAT which have been approved by this Court to bolster his stand, and we shall refer to them at the appropriate stage. It is canvassed by him that it is the admitted position that drugs are not covered under the E.T. Act and do not find any mention either in the Schedule I or Schedule II and are not liable to levy of entry tax. Incrementing the submission learned senio....
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....agent is nothing but a medium to convey the active ingredient on to the louse; and that the period of treatment is four weeks and the product is not used generally for washing the hair. 8. We shall presently consider the authorities cited at the Bar to appreciate the actual background. In G.S. Pai (supra), the Court was considering what meaning is to be placed on "Bullion and Specie" in the light of the provisions of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963. In that context, the Court observed that:- "... Now there is one cardinal rule of interpretation which has always to be borne in mind while interpreting entries in sales tax legislation and it is that the words used in the entries must be construed not in any technical sense nor from the scientific point of view but as understood in common parlance. We must give the words used by the legislature their popular-sense meaning "that sense which people conversant with the subject-matter with which the statute is dealing would attribute to it". The word "bullion" must, therefore, be interpreted according to ordinary parlance and must be given a meaning which people conversant with this commodity would ascribe to it. Now it ....
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....aidyanath Ayurved Bhavan Limited-II (supra) to emphasise on the common parlance test. We think it appropriate to reproduce the entire paragraph:- "As a matter of fact, this Court has consistently applied common parlance test as one of the well-recognised tests to find out whether the product falls under Chapter 30 or Chapter 33. In a recent decision in Puma Ayurvedic Herbal (P) Ltd. v. CCE (2006) 3 SCC 266 this Court observed that in order to determine whether a product is a cosmetic or medicament, a twin test (common parlance test being one of them) has found favour with the courts. This is what this Court observed: (SCC pp. 269-70, para 2) "2. ... In order to determine whether a product is a cosmetic or a medicament a twin test has found favour with the courts. The test has approval of this Court also vide CCE v. Richardson Hindustan Ltd. (2004) 9 SCC 156 There is no dispute about this as even the Revenue accepts that the test is determinative for the issue involved. The tests are: I. Whether the item is commonly understood as a medicament which is called the common parlance test. For this test it will have to be seen whether in common parlance the item is ac....
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.... arguments advanced before us, we are convinced that a person infested with lice does not get relief by merely washing his or her hair with water or various types of shampoo which are available in the market. The life and habits of the louse seem to call for more drastic steps in orders to get rid of the lice. On the label it is claimed that if the hair is shampooed with Mediker and left for 3 minutes and the process is repeated, lice are eliminated. The label also shows that Madiker consists of D-Phenothrin and other ingredients. The penetrating power of D-Phenothrin whereby it paralyses the lice was established before us during the course of hearing. The label itself immediately after the name of the product (Mediker) mentions "anti-lice treatment". These show that "Mediker" is a special product made for the treatment of lice. The submissions made by the learned Advocate that the anti-lice treatment is not subsidiary to the cosmetic function but is in the main function is borne out by the details given in the label and the explanations placed before us." 12. The tribunal posed a question: Can Mediker cure and prevent a disease? On the basis of material on record, the tribunal ....
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....ow from infestation of lice. Thus, this is a product which is used for therapeutic and prophylactic purposes. It would thus be a Medicament within the meaning of the term "Medicament" in Note 2 of Chapter 30. It therefore gets excluded from Chapter 38. 7. This view has also been taken by us in the case of ICPA Health Products (P) Ltd. v. Commissioner of C. Ex., Vadodara reported in 2004 (167) ELT 20. We are also in agreement with the opinion expressed by the Tribunal in Pharmasia's case (supra) wherein in respect of an identical product it has been set out that such product would fall under Chapter 30 under Tariff Heading 30.03." 14. In Puma Ayurvedic Herbal (P) Ltd. (supra) the distinction between "medicament" and "cosmetic" was highlighted in the following words:- "It will be seen from the above definition of "cosmetic" that the cosmetic products are meant to improve appearance of a person, that is, they enhance beauty, whereas a medicinal product or a medicament is meant to treat some medical condition. It may happen that while treating a particular medical problem, after the problem is cured, the appearance of the person concerned may improve. What is to be....