STF na Mídia - MyClipp

Business Line/ ­- Markets, Dom, 15 de Abril de 2012
CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL (Supreme Court)
‘Preventive properties of a product can
qualify it as medicine'
When a product in addition to having cleansing
properties also keeps diseases and harmful bacteria at
bay, it qualifies as medicine even if the medical
component in the product is minuscule in terms of
quantity or value or both, said the Supreme Court.In
the case of Commissioner of Central Excise vs.
Wockhardt Life Sciences Ltd, the issue was whether
the product manufactured by the respondent was
detergent or medicament.The Revenue's contention
was that it was detergent on the basis of ?common
parlance test' and ?commercial usage test' as
bolstered by the fact that the medicinal properties in it
were miniscule and incidental, with its predominant
use being cleansing.Pigeonholing its product into
ayurvedic begot the manufacturer nil tax status
whereas as detergent, it attracted an 18 per cent
excise duty.The Supreme Court, while holding the
cleanser in question a medicament, pointed out that
the common parlance test and commercial usage test
are not sacrosanct and infallible.It was also not
necessary, the Court added, that a product must have
curative properties to be labelled a medicine; even
preventive properties would do.(The author is a
NewDelhi­-based chartered accountant.)
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