Hawkins Cookers Limited vs The State of Tamil Nadu

K. Raviraja Pandian, J.—The revision is filed by the assessee against order of the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal (Main Bench), Chennai dated 3.11.1999 made in T.A. No. 257 of 1998 by formulating the following question of law:

Whether the Tribunal is correct in levying sales tax in respect of sale of the stick resistant utensils manufactured and sold by the assessee under the residuary Entry 63 of Part D of the First Schedule instead of Entry B-14 of the First Schedule to the TNGST Act?

The petitioner is manufacturing and selling cookers and utensils viz., non-stick cookwares which has been coated with teflon. The question as to whether these goods are pure aluminium household utensils which are eligible for concessional rate of levy of tax under Entry B-14 of Part B of the I Schedule has been held against the assessee, which is put in issue in this revision. The Supreme Court in assessee''s own case in Hawkins Cookers Limited v. State of Kerala reported in (2008) 14 VST 375 has held that the Satilon brand cookware sold by the assessee would not fall under entry 5 of Schedule I to the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963 as "aluminium household utensils" but will fall under entry 104 pertaining to "pressure cooker, cook and serve ware to keep food warm, casseroles, etc., or similar home appliances". Satilon coated aluminium products are not identical with aluminium household utensils. The coating of satilon makes all the difference to the product. By no stretch of imagination can the satilon coated cookware be treated as ordinary household utensils. When the issue is settled by the Apex Court in the revision petitioner''s own case they cannot have any argument to take a different view in this case. The Tax Case Revision is dismissed.