The Gujarat Authority of Advance Ruling (AAR) ruled that Lassi is exempted from Goods and Service Tax (GST).
The applicant, Sampoorna Dairy and Agrotech LLP submitted that their product ‘Lassi’ will be named as ‘Laban’ and sold under the Brand name of ‘Elan’ in 4 flavours namely Plain, Strawberry, sweetened with sugar, and Blueberry, sweetened with sugar.
The applicant has sought the advance ruling on the issues of whether products manufactured as ‘Lassi’ but named as ‘laban’ can be classified as Lassi under Description of Goods, is the goods taxable or exempted if exempted, HSN of the Product and rate of tax on product and if taxable, HSN of product and rate of tax on the product.
The Coram of Members Sanjay Saxena and Arun Richard held that lassi is a fermented milk drink and its main ingredients are curd, water and spices. The AAR noted that the manufacturing Process submitted by the applicant. On reading the contents of the subject goods displayed on the bottle of ‘laban’, we find the following ingredients printed on the bottle: Pasteurized toned milk, spices, pudina, green chilli, ginger, salts, active culture, added nature identical flavour and stabilizer (INS440). Further, on the bottle of ‘laban’, we note that ‘‘Dairy-based fermented Drink’ is printed.
The AAR ruled that the goods are classified as Lassi at HSN 040390 and are exempt from GST.
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