Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax (Law), Board of Revenue (Taxes) vs Pattancherry Service Co-operative Bank Ltd.

P.C. Balakrishna Menon, J.—The only question for decision in this tax revision case is whether zinc sulphate is a fertilizer falling under entry 64 of the First Schedule of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, as it stood at the relevant period of assessment. The Tribunal refers to a clarification issued by the Joint Director of Agriculture; Government of Kerala, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, Government of India, that zinc sulphate is a chemical manure included in Clause 27 of the Schedule of the Fertilizer Control Order, 1957.

A Division Bench of this Court in the decision in Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax (Law), Board of Revenue (Taxes), Ernakulam v. Champakulam Village Service Co-operative Society Ltd. [1980] 46 STC 318 has held that rock phosphate is a chemical fertilizer falling under entry 64 as it stood at the relevant time. We therefore see no reason to take a different view and hold that zinc sulphate is a chemical fertilizer.

The tax revision is dismissed. No costs.