TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2020 (7) TMI 809
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....ritage Foods Limited, (hereinafter referred to as applicant), registered under the Goods & Services Tax. 2. The provisions of the CGST Act and APGST Act are identical, except for certain provisions. Therefore, unless a specific mention of the dissimilar provision is made, a reference to the CGST Act would also mean a reference to the same provision under the APGST Act. Further, henceforth, for the purposes of this Advance Ruling, a reference to such a similar provision under the CGST or AP GST Act would be mentioned as being under the GST Act. 3. Brief Facts of the case: M/s. Heritage Foods Limited, (herein referred to as applicant), holding GSTIN 37AAACH2778K1Z8, is primarily engaged in the business of processing and marketing ful....
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....f facts and interpretation of Law: The applicant submits the following aspects with respect to the product under question, i.e., flavoured milk. 1) In this regard the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), the Flagship Dairy Research Institute of the Government of India had also stated about the nature of product flavoured milk as follows; "National Diary Research Institute, Bangalore has also confirmed that flavoured milk falls under Diary produce as per the FSSAI, 2006. As per the FSSAI regulations 2011, section 2.1.3 has defined flavoured milk as a "Product prepared from milk or other products derived from milk, or both, and edible flavouring with or without addition of sugar, nutritive sweeteners, other non-diary ingre....
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....e of product flavoured milk as follows; "National Diary Research Institute, Bangalore has also confirmed that flavoured milk falls under Diary produce as per the FSSAI, 2006. As per the FSSAI regulations 2011, section 2.1.3 has defined flavoured milk as a "Product prepared from milk or other products derived from milk, or both, and edible flavouring with or without addition of sugar, nutritive sweeteners, other non-diary ingredients, including stabilizers and food colours. Flavoured milk shall be subjected to heat treatment as provided in sub-regulation 2.1.1 (general standards for milk and milk products) where flavoured milk is dried or concentrated, the dried or concentrated product on addition of prescribed amount of water-shall....
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....r precise description of the flavoured milk, applying the principle under rule 3(b), classification shall be the material which gives flavoured milk its essential character. Chapter 22 not applicable Chapter 22 deals with Beverages, spirits and vinegar and heading 2202 99 30 deals with beverages containing milk. a) Since heading 2202 99 30 covers beverages containing milk, whether flavoured milk is beverage containing milk? b) The term beverage is not defined in CTA. However as per note 3 of chapter 22 of the CTA. For the purposes of heading 2202 the term "non-alcoholic beverages" means beverages of an alcoholic strength by volume not exceeding 0.5 %. vol. Alcoholic beverages are classified in headings 2203 ....
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....h clearly indicates that flavoured milk is not classifiable under heading 0403 as none of the materials listed in the heading 0403 are included in flavoured milk. Therefore, applying the principle under Rule 3(b) of section 2 of the CTA, the General Rules of interpretation 0402 is more relevant as the essential character of flavoured milk is milk. Since none of the entries in heading 0402 covers flavoured milk specifically, the same shall be classified under the general entry 0402 99 90. The Allahabad high court in M/s. Gujarat Coop Milk Marketing Federation Ltd Vs State of UP & Others (2017-TIOL -1247-HC-ALL-CT) has held that flavoured milk is milk. The extract of the judgement is reproduced below: Now without going into ....