Rooh afza a fruit drink, eligible for lower VAT: Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Wednesday held that Hamdard (Wakf) Laboratories' 'sharbat rooh afza' was classifiable under the fruit drink or processed fruit product category under the Uttar Pradesh Value Added Tax Act, qualifying for a lower value added tax rate of 4%.

Rejecting the Uttar Pradesh commercial tax department's stand that 'sharbat rooh afza' belonged to the residuary entry category under the Act and liable for a higher value added tax of 12.5%, a bench led by Justice B.V. Nagarathna said that Hamdard's product derived its essential beverage identity from fruit-based constituents and regulatory or licensing classification cannot control or curtail the interpretation of a fiscal entry.

The bench observed that the Entry 103 of Schedule II, Part A of the 2008 Act, relating to the fruit juice category, was illustrative and inclusive in character and does not prescribe any quantitative threshold of fruit content.