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2016 (7) TMI 715 - RAJASTHAN HIGH COURTThe point of sale of the crude oil - shifting of delivery point/s for the sale of Barmer Crude oil outside the state of Rajasthan - the petitioner was then concerned with certain reports in the vernacular press that respondent state was seeking to impose Value Added Tax (VAT) at the rate of 4% then prevailing treating the sale of crude oil from the Barmer Oil Fields as a local sale (Intra State Sale) instead of an inter state sale-as it palpably was, on which the then extant CST @ 2% against C-form was leviable. Held that:- The defence of the respondent State to the writ petition overlooks the fundamental aspect of sale transaction between the petitioner and nominated buyers of crude oil where movement of goods is inevitably occasioned out of the State of Rajasthan in one unbroken transaction, following the sale, as all nominated buyers such as MRPL etc. have their refineries in State of Gujarat and Karnataka. There is no third party. There is no third party transaction. Further in terms of the judgments of the Apex Court referred to above, where the sale and delivery takes place has been relegated to an inconsequential event when the sale seamlessly occasions the movement of goods outside the state. It is thus evident that the sale transaction of crude oil by the petitioner in the facts of the case, even with the point of sale being in Rajasthan, partakes the character of an inter-state sale. The purport of the undertaking by the petitioner in its letter dated 23-10-2008 as also the subsequent the letter dated 7-1-2009 was only that the change of the delivery point by the Central Government from the outward flange of the petitioner’s delivery facility at Barmer to Salaya on 30-4-2008 would not facilitate stock transfer of Barmer crude oil to Gujarat such that the State of Rajasthan would stand deprived as the originating state, of its revenue on inter-state sales at the applicable rate. The undertaking did not at all state that RVAT would be paid. The levy was only to be dependent on the sale being a local sale or inter-state sale. In the instant case the sales on the facts relevant thereto being an inter-state sale, as the originating state in terms of Section 9 of the CST, the State of Rajasthan is entitled CST at the rate applicable to an inter-state sale. Besides it is preposterous to argue that sales tax would be leviable contrary to law and the mandate of Article 265 of the Constitution of India on the basis of a purported undertaking by the petitioner. It is held that the sale of crude oil by the petitioner from the Barmer Oil Fileds to MRPL etc., all nominated by the Central Government, under clause 1.23 of the PSC is an inter state sale and the Commercial Taxes Department of the State of Rajasthan has no jurisdiction to levy any tax under the provisions of the RVAT Act, 2003. Central Sales Tax at the rate applicable from time to time would however be leviable by the Commercial Taxes Department.
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