ORDER :

Vinod Chandran, J.

The revisions by the assessee arise from penalty proceedings; which found the assessee having declared and paid the tax on the bottled drinking water sold by the assessee at a lower rate than that prescribed under the First Schedule of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963 (for brevity 'the KGST Act'). The Department was of the view that the bottled drinking water sold by the assessee comes within the definition of 'mineral water' exigible to tax @20% as per Entry 141 of the First Schedule. The assessee claimed that the bottled drinking water sold by the assessee is 'packaged drinking water', under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules, 1955 (for short 'PFA Rules'); which is not covered by any Entry under the Schedules of the KGST Act and hence assessable to tax @8% under the residual Entry.

2. The questions of law arising are re-framed as ;

1. Whether the Tribunal was correct in having classified the product sold by the assessee as 'mineral water' when by the specific standards provided under the PFA Rules, the product is 'packaged drinking water', required to be sold only with that description on the label; failing which the assessee would invite prose