Mobile charger must be taxed separately: SC

As a phone could be operated without a charger, the latter could not be its part, the Value-added Tax Tribunal had ruled. 

 

The Supreme Court ruled on Sunday that a cellphone battery charger was an independent product sold separately and must be taxed as such. 

The Bench set aside the Punjab and Haryana High Court ruling which accepted Nokia India’s contention that the battery charger was a composite part of the cellphone unit and hence must attract the concessionary tax rate charged for phone parts. 

It upheld the verdict of the Value-added Tax Tribunal which concurred with the tax authority’s decision to deal with the two components — handset and charger — as separate entities for tax levy. 

The tribunal had ruled that since the phone could be operated without the charger, the latter could not be its part.