‘ Samosa ‘ is Cooked Food, Higher Tax Applicable: Uttarakhand HC [Read Judgment]

The Uttarakhand High Court has ruled that samosa is considered to be cooked food, hence it would attract higher tax rate.

In the instant case Assessee is running shop and engaged in the activity of selling sweets, namkeen, samosa, milk and curd etc. and he has filed his return of income for the relevant assessment year and declared his taxable income at Rs.50,720 on the basis of the total turnover of Rs.11,55,900. During the course of assessment proceedings, the Assessing Officer (AO) recomputed the income of the Assessee and declared his total income at Rs.13,66,400 while completing the assessment.

The Assessee raised objections against the assessment order passed by the AO and he also compiled regarding the tax rate of samosa. The Assessee contended that samosa would come under the category Sweets and Namkeen, therefore it has to be taxed at the rate of 5% and he also submitted that in fact Samosa in respect of the adjoining shop, has been taxed at 4% under the entry “Sweets and Namkeen”. But the AO wrongly taxed the same at the rate of 8%.

On appeal, both the lower authorities such as CIT(A) and Income Tax Appellate Tribunal rejected the contentions of the Assessee and upheld the order of the AO. Thereafter, the Assessee carried the matter before the Court on further appeal.

The division bench comprising of Chief Justice K.M. Joseph and Justice Sharad Kumar Sharma observed that the assessee has raised a ground that samosa is to be taxed at 5% and not at 8%, there is no expatiation of the ground as to what would be the basis. In fact, there is no material produced also by the assessee in support of the contention that Samosa is to be treated as namkeen and not as cooked food. Under the law, the assessee could have produced material or evidence in support of the contention that samosa is namkeen.

The Court also observed that samosa is certainly cooked food and since it satisfies requirement of cooked food otherwise in a broad sense and since the other alternative is to tax it under namkeen which does not appeal to the Court, in the absence of any material or finding in the orders, the Court inclined to not overturn the order of the authorities, as confirmed by the Tribunal which is undoubtedly the fact-finding authority as samosas are to be taxed at the rate of 8%.

While dismissing the appeal filed by the Assessee the Court also declared that samosa made in the said shop has been assessed at the rate as applicable to namkeen cannot possibly colour the understanding of the entry in law.