TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2018 (12) TMI 1304
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....ong pepper' or Piper longum, to which it is akin but mistakenly confused with. The serendipitous attempt by another great navigator of the time from Genoa, Christopher Columbus, to make landfall in the Indies by the western passage, obtained for the other Iberian kingdom, the Spain of later days, its empire spread over the Americas and the Pacific and, from the Columbian Exchange, the other 'peppers' or chilli of the genus Capsicum. The conflict of those empires for control of the Atlantic Ocean were settled by the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) and by the Treaty of Zaragoza (1529) for that over the Pacific to bifurcate the globe between these two maritime powers. Another two centuries was to elapse before the confusion of the 'peppers' was resolved in 1735 by the Linnaean taxonomy. It would, however, appear from the rival contentions before us in this dispute over order-in-appeal no.38-74/2017-2018 dated 23rd March 2018 of Commissioner of Customs (Appeals), Kochi, that the pique over the piquancy, so to speak, is far from over; the battle, no less fierce,continues in the courtroom. This narrative is not mere pedantic exhibitionism but, according to us, provides the framework for its....
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....tion under a residual, and amorphous, description. According to him, the progressive structuring of the Tariff impliedly disallows the placement of 'inputs' under the very last residuary description when 'output', 'green pepper in brine', as admitted to by Revenue, precedes this. Drawing attention to the significance of '-', '-', '---', '----' in General Explanatory Note 1 to the General Rules for Interpretation of the Schedule, the mutual exclusion of 'fruits of the genus Capsicum or genus Pimenta' designated with '-' in heading 0709 60 and 'green pepper' designated with '----' under 'other' against '---' within 'other vegetables, fresh or chilled' designated with '-' corresponding to the declared classification is consistent with the intent to distinguish raw produce of the specified genus as well as that of 'genus Piper' or 'vegetable' from the dried version or 'spices' in a later chapter. He further claims that the earlier imports at Kochi, and other imports elsewhere in the country, under chapter 7 is the considered wisdom of the assessing authorities that is now attempted, perversely, to be derailed. It is also his contention that the Tribunal, in Collector of Customs, Co....
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....is a residuary while that claimed by appellant brooks no room for ambiguity. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in that landmark decision in Dunlop India Ltd & Madras Rubber Factory Ltd v. Union of India and Others [1983 (13) ELT 1566 (SC)] has held that '37. It is good fiscal policy not to put people in doubt and quandary about their liability to duty, when a particular product... known to trade and commerce in this country and abroad is imported, it would have been better if the article is eo nomine, put under a proper classification to avoid controversy over the residuary clause..... When an article has, by all standards, a reasonable claim to be classified under an enumerated item in the Tariff Schedule, it will be against the very principle of classification to deny it the parentage and consign it to an orphanage of the residuary clause. The question of competition between two rival classifications well, however, stand on a different footing.' consistent with earlier judgement in Ramavatar Budhaiprasad v. Assistant Sales Tax Officer [(1962) 1 SCR 279] that referred with approval to the decision of the Exchequer Court in King v. Planters and Chocolate Company Limited, in Commissio....
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....nt view of the Hon'ble Supreme Court is that the common understanding of a description is the best yardstick for classification. While 'peppers' may refer to the 'Colombian Exchange' variety in household and culinary usage of the Occident, in our country the derivative of the Latin expressions differentiates these from 'pepper' that was traded in Europe by Venetians, Arabs and the Portuguese in that order; well and truly, 'pepper' is that which is picked from the vine of the genus Piper. The submission on behalf of Revenue does not find favour. 8. Having thus isolated the legislative intent, a perusal of the enumerated tariff items under 090411, the last of which has been crystalised as the most appropriate by the lower authorities, confirms the supposition that these have been clubbed together for its utility as 'spice' in its processed form. In that scheme, the source should not find a place at the tail end. As pointed out by Learned Counsel, the brined/dehydrated product emanating from the processing of 'green pepper' picked from the vine cannot, by any stretch, be accorded a place preceding that of the latter. It would, therefore, appear that, in the form in which the goods ....