TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (7) TMI 53
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....ing the amount of admissible input tax credit shall be made, unless the Appellant has been given an opportunity of being heard. 2. Under Section 103(1) of the Act, this Advance ruling pronounced by the Appellate Authority under Chapter XVII of the Act shall be binding only (a) on the applicant who had sought it in respect of any matter referred to in sub-section (2) of Section 97 for advance ruling; (b) on the concerned officer or the jurisdictional officer in respect of the applicant. 3. Under Section 103 (2) of the Act, this advance ruling shall be binding unless the law, facts or circumstances supporting the said advance ruling have changed. 4. Under Section 104(1) of the Act, where the Appellate Authority finds that advance ruling pronounced by it under sub-section (1) of Section 101 has been obtained by the Appellant by fraud or suppression of material facts or misrepresentation of facts, it may, by order, declare such ruling to be void ab-initio and thereupon all the provisions of this Act or the rules made thereunder shall apply to the Appellant as if such advance ruling has never been made. Tvl. V.S. Trading Company (Prop. P. Vasudevan) at 7/12....
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....d from farmers Better quality tapioca tubers procured from farmers are used for manufacture of sago and starch. Normally, the inferior quality of tapioca tubers are dried in the yard and then crushed into flour and marketed. This tapioca flour is chiefly used for cattle feed and preparation of gums. • The products are purchased by the appellant in 50Kgs/70 Kgs Jute/Gunny bags and the traders and manufacturers have not registered their brand name or trade name under the Trade Marks Act, 1999. The suppliers are not charging tax in the bill of supply as they are not using any brand name or trade name. The goods are not for human. consumption. The appellant is claiming that 'tapioca flour' is exempted under Notification No. 02/2017-CT (Rate) dated 28-06-2017 and Notification No. 02/2017-IT(Rate) dated 28-06-2017. • The appellant reproduced the relevant entry of the notification before and after its amendment and stated that with effect from 22-09-2017, the products classifiable under 1106 are chargeable to GST only if put up in unit containers and bearing a registered brand name or bearing a brand name on which actionable claim or enforceable right in a court ....
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....arch at entry 2303.10. • Submitting the copies of bills of purchase and sale and photograph of sago pith otherwise known as 'thippi', the appellant contended that tapioca flour is a distinct and different commercial product from residues of starch mentioned in 2303.10. • The appellant explaining the Chapters 23(2303), 7(0714) and 11(1106) has again contended that their product is distinguishable from the products falling under heading 2303.10. Hence, the appellant prayed that the original and rectification orders passed by AAR by misclassification is liable to be set aside and cancelled both on facts and law. • Finally prayed before the appellate authorities to set aside and cancel the consequential Advance Ruling No. 25/AAR/2023 dated 20-06-2023, Rectification of Mistake dated 18-03-2025 and thus render justice. 7. PERSONAL HEARING Personal hearing was held as granted on 11-06-2025 and Shri N. Murali, Advocate & Authorised Representative (AR) appeared for the personal hearing on behalf of the appellant. AR reiterated the submissions made in their appeal application filed with AAAR. AR with the help of chart and photograph explained the ....
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....lant further submitted that In both the cases, it is the stage prior to manufacturing of starch and therefore the 'sago pith' or 'wet thippi' is not a residue of starch. DISCUSSION AND FINDINGS 10. We have carefully considered the submissions made by the appellant in the appeal application, the submissions made during the personal hearing along the documents furnished by them and the additional submissions furnished by them thereafter. 11. The issue to be decided in this case is classification of the product, applicability of exemption notification, determination of tax liability and whether such traders are required to be registered or not. 12. The appellant is a trader of 'tapioca flour' within and across the States. The goods are purchased in 50 Kgs/70 Kgs gunny bags with bill of supply from the suppliers as exempted goods with classification under 1106. The appellant supplies the goods as such under a sale invoice as 'exempted/Nil rated goods' since no value is added on the goods purchased by them. The applicant required advance ruling on the queries above for their product. 13. The appellant sought to classify their product under 1106 whereas AAR both in the ori....
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....animal fodder". This chapter covers all the residues emanating from the food industries and also all prepared animal fodder. It is pertinent to mention here that most residue and waste from the food industries are normally used as animal feed or in the preparation of making animal fodder. 17. Before going to decide the issue, some of the terms being used in the industry, the appellant and in general, need to be understood. 'Manufacturing process': series of systematic steps, methods and operations used to transform raw materials and components into finished goods". By-product: Something that is produced as a result of making something else or it is a secondary product derived from a production process, manufacturing process or chemical reaction Pith: is usually a continuous central strand of spongy tissue in the stems of most vascular plants that probably functions chiefly in storage. 'Sago pith' refers to the spongy core or pith tissue of certain tropical palms, particularly Metroxylon sagu, from which sago starch is extracted. Thippi or 'tapioca thippi': During manufacturing of sago/tapioca starch, the tapioca tubers after cleaned, de-skinned and soaked in water ar....
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....ng various process for finally getting edible tapioca starch, otherwise known as tapioca flour. Since the ultimate aim is to obtain edible tapioca starch as final product, the process which the tubers undergo is a 'starch manufacturing processes. During this manufacturing process, thippi is obtained as a by-product and residue of starch manufacture. This thippi obtained as residue after sieving is subjected rasping, sieving and drying to obtain products of different grade used in the animal feed production. 18.2 Intermittently, before the stage of getting edible tapioca starch, for producing sago (crystal form of tapioca starch) the purified bleached wet starch is dried to bring the moisture content to 30% to 40%, powdered and then converted to granules using granulator. Normally, sago is recognised as granulated tapioca starch among the people. 19. It could be seen from the above process, 'thippi' is the residue after extracting the crude starch by sieving. Practically, the nomenclature 'Tapioca Flour' used by the appellant for their product is not technically correct. Therefore, 'thippi' is the by-product of the main product, namely, edible tapioca starch. Thippi is obtaine....
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....i'. At this stage, the appellant contends that there is no manufacturing of starch and informed that the same is explained in Table-B. Therefore contended that the 'sago pith' or 'thippi' is not the residue of starch and that the findings are not correct. Further, in the next paragraph of the additional submission, the appellant has stated that both the process namely, 'crushing of inferior quality of tapioca' and 'crushing of superior quality of tapioca' is used in the process of deriving 'wet milk' and 'sago pith' as explained in Table-A of the written submission. In both the above processes, 'wet thippi' emanates and the appellant submits that the issue to be decided is whether 'wet thippi' is prior to or after manufacturing of starch. 25. From the above facts, it is noted that the appellant himself is not clear about how the product is manufactured and when the 'wet thippi' is emanating during the starch manufacture. The appellant being a trader of animal feed in 50/70 Kgs gunny bags have not submitted any proof or documentary evidences from the manufacturer of the product regarding the manufacturing process of their product. It is clear that the appellant is trying to prese....