Supreme Court to decide whether Travel Ludo, Travel Chess & Draughts and Junior Monopoly are toys, puzzles or games

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will soon have to toy over a rather complicated issue — whether Travel Ludo, Travel Chess & Draughts, Travel Snakes & Ladders and Junior Monopoly are toys, puzzles or games.

The matter is serious business for toymaker Funskool India, which stands to lose money in the form of 16% ad valorem duty if the court decides they are games that involve a certain amount of competitive spirit or gambling. In case the court decides they are toys or puzzles, the company will not have to cough up any duty.

Funskool India has conceded to assessing officers that Snakes & Ladders and Monopoly could be treated as games and paid duty on them. Upwords, a product similar to Scrabble, which had earlier been declared a game and not a puzzle, is taxable.

But the company, in a petition filed through Sukumaran & Associates, contested a majority finding by the Customs, Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT), declaring 18 other products as games. It claimed the Excise Department had wrongly applied the parameters used to differentiate games from puzzles when it assessed toys.

The company also said that because it had conceded Snakes & Ladders and Monopoly were games, the department had insisted all products involving a small amount of skill and dice-based chance should be treated as table or parlour games and should be taxed.

CESTAT classified only eight items as toys — and hence non-taxable — while the rest were considered games, the company argued, urging the top court to declare 18 of its products as toys.

Miniature Versions Designed for Children

Most of the products classified as games were miniature versions designed for children to play with, the company said. The petition was mentioned on October 13 by senior advocate Arvind P Datar before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India HL Dattu, which agreed to examine the plea.

The bench issued notices to the Excise Department but refused to stay the CESTAT ruling of May 23. In some cases, claims relate to five years prior to 2001 while in others they are for the period 2000-2001. CESTAT had set aside penalties on them, allowing the Excise Department to claim only duties and interest.

Under the Excise Tariff Act of 1985, the manufacture and sale of toys, educational toys, puzzles and other toys do not attract any duty. Games, table or parlour games and all board or dice games are taxable.

Parlour games such as carrom, ludo and chess, which are played in game parlours or clubs are taxable. Similarly, table games including table tennis and roulette also attract the levy. According to parameters laid down earlier by the top court, ludo, chess and monopoly are games as their outcome cannot be predicted and they involve skill or chance or both. A product is a puzzle only if its outcome is predetermined. A puzzle involves no luck, but clues.