Patel Products & Anr. Vs Union of India & Ors. (Gujarat High Court)
Gujarat High Court held that the small retail pouches of tobacco leaves sold by petitioner is covered under the category of chewing tobacco and hence classifiable under Tariff Heading No. 2403 9910.
Facts- This group of petitions pertain to issue of classification as to whether non fermented non liquored crushed tobacco leaves packed in small retail pouches as “Chewing tobacco” should be classified under Customs Tariff heading No.2401 -“unmanufactured tobacco ; Tobacco Refuse” or Custom Tariff Heading No.24039910-“chewing tobacco” attracting different rates of duty under the provisions of Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.
Conclusion- Held that considering the above provisions of the ‘Copta’ as well as Explanatory Note of HSN (2017 Edition) issued by the World Customs Organization read with definition of “manufacture” as per section 2(72) of the GST Act, we are of the opinion that the chewing tobacco manufactured by the petitioners sold in retail pouches after re-packing from bulk packages to retail packages would fall within the Tariff Heading No. 2403 9910 as “chewing tobacco’ and not under Tariff Heading 24012090 as “unmanufactured tobacco”. Thus, the respondent authorities have therefore rightly classified the same under the Tariff Heading 2403 9910 as “chewing tobacco” under the provisions of the GST Act which would attract the rate of GST and Compensation Cess accordingly.
