In a significant ruling, the Madhya Pradesh Authority of Advance Ruling (AAR) has ruled that the product “Ber Berry” manufactured and supplied is classifiable under GST Tariff Heading 2008 as preserved fruit and held to levy 12% tax.
Shri Virendra Kumar Jain and Manoj Kumar Choubey observed that the applicant’s preparation exceeds the process covered by chapter 0811 and Chapter 8 exclusively covers fresh fruit or fruit
cooked by steaming or boiling in water.
The applicant, Italian Edible Pvt engaged in the manufacture of an edible product under the brand name “Ber Berry” which contains Jujube fruit, sugar, salt, permitted preservatives and mixed spices. The product consists of Jujube fruit commonly known as “Berphal” in India which is a fruit itself which is packed in crushed or softened form and mixed with sugar and salt for favouring.
The preparation step involves sorting, cleaning and soaking the fruit in hot water. Then the soaked fruit was transferred to a centrifugal machine and then to a steam jacketed tank where it was cooked with steam. At this stage, the other ingredients i.e., sugar, salt, preservatives, and some spices are added.Once the fruit was cooked, it was transferred to small containers of 20 kgs each for coolingand then it was packed into small sachets of around 11 grams each.
The product is in the form of the original jujube fruit itself, which also contains the seeds and retains the essential taste and character of the fruit. It was cooked with help of steam and mixed with sugar as a flavouring substance only.
It was observed that the chapter heading number 2008 includes fruit, nuts, and other edible parts of plants, otherwise prepared or preserved, whether or not containing added sugar or other sweetening matter or spirit, not elsewhere specified or included.
The Tribunal observed that the process of manufacturing the product of the applicant was not simple to cover in chapter 0811. The process of the applicant is the preparation of fruit which contains preservatives and other ingredients which are classified under the heading 2008 of Tariff.
Shri Pradeep Asawa and Shri Palkesh Asawa appeared on behalf of the applicant.
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