TMI Blog1992 (4) TMI 217X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... engal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941, as extended to Delhi? The dispute primarily is as to the rate of sales tax, chargeable in respect to one category of finished goods marketed by the assessee, namely, television sets, the assessee being engaged in the manufacture of T.V. sets, tape-recorders, calculators and transistors, etc. The statement of facts further reveals that the assessee being a registered dealer, purchased certain parts required for the manufacture of T.V. sets against the registration certificates without payment of requisite sales tax. The liability to pay sales tax on these items arose because of the provisions of second proviso to section 5(2)(ii) of the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941, as extended to Delhi (for short "the Act"), for the reason that the parts which the assessee purchased on the strength of the registration certificates could earn exemption from sales tax only if they were intended for resale in the Union Territory of Delhi or had been purchased for use as raw material in manufacture of goods, in the Union Territory of Delhi. It appears that a certain number of T.V. sets, for the manufacture whereof parts as enumerated in question No. 2 had ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... by the department to bring television sets within the net of 10 per cent rate of sales tax. In fact, the dispute relates to the assessment year immediately preceding the enforcement of the aforesaid Act, wherein the relevant entry, being entry No. 4 of the First Schedule appended to the 1975 Act, reads as under: "4. Wireless reception instruments and apparatus, radios and radiogramophones, television sets, accumulators, amplifiers and loudspeakers and spare parts, component parts and accessories thereof, and electrical valves." A comparative study of these entries, as they existed for time to time, reveals that up to 1975 the relevant entry contained the generic expression as "wireless reception instruments and apparatus". This expression is common to all the three entries which were operative during different periods. The only difference is that from time to time certain other items like radios and radio-gramophones, etc., were specified. The T.V. sets, as specified item, appeared in this entry for the first time in the First Schedule to the 1975 Act. Mr. Sangal, arguing on behalf of the assessee, contended that the terms and expressions used in taxing statutes should be int ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Sales Tax v. Sarin Textile Mills [1975] 35 STC 634; AIR 1975 SC 1262, where an entry in the notification issued under the U.P. Sales Tax Act was interpreted by reference to the dictionary meaning by taking note of dictionaries such as Oxford Dictionary, and Webster's New World Dictionary. It thus follows that common parlance test is not the uniform rule. It depends upon the expression used by the Legislature or the intention gathered from other items enumerated in the relevant entry by adopting what is known as the ejusdem generis test or noscitur a sociis test and also by taking a cumulative view of the entries as they stood from time to time. There are cases where the entries were of such description that certain goods, which ordinarily would not, by adopting the common parlance test or that of a layman's understanding, be considered to be belonging to that particular category, but by virtue of the generic description of the tariff entry, it was held to include items which ordinarily could not, by the commercial parlance test, be so counted. For instance, in the case of Delhi Cloth General Mills Co. Ltd. v. State of Rajasthan [1980] 46 STC 256; (1980) ELT 383 (SC), the Supr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... llustrative. We would go further to say that television is in a way an extension of the principle of radio transmission because the only difference is that in radio the reproduction is only of sound whereas in television it is both audio as well as visual, but both operate on the principle of wireless reception. In Words and Phrases Legally Defined, volume 5, second edition, television set has been defined to mean: "........any wireless telegraphy apparatus designed primarily for the purpose of receiving and exhibiting television programmes broadcast for general reception." (page 172) In the same dictionary, the term "wireless telegraphy" has been defined at page 344 to mean the emission or reception of electromagnetic energy which serves, inter alia, for the conveying of messages, sound or visual images. On this definition of wireless telegraphy, a television is for all purposes a wireless reception instrument and apparatus. In Oxford Dictionary of Current English, Fourth Edition, television has been defined to mean: "Process of transmitting and reproducing on a screen events, scenes, plays, etc., in pictures and sound, using radio signals, programmes broadcast in this w ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ing apparatus." There is thus no manner of doubt that a television operates on principle of wireless telegraphy or radio transmission. By virtue of the definition in the Wireless Telegraphy Act also, any apparatus which is a means of wireless communication by transmission or reception of signs, signals, writing, images and sounds by electricity, magnetism or radio waves shall take within its ambit television set also. In the judgment in the case of Ramavatar Budhaiprasad v. Assistant Sales Tax Officer [1961] 12 STC 286, while considering as to whether "betel leaves" shall be included in the expression "vegetables" as used in the C.P. and Berar Sales Tax Act, 1947, it was no doubt held by the Supreme Court that words of common day use should not be construed in technical sense nor from the botanical point of view but as understood in common parlance. But the judgment is primarily based on the fact that originally the term "vegetables" was included in item No. 6 of the Schedule to that Act whereas "betel leaves" were covered by item 36. This was the Schedule where all articles mentioned therein were exempt from sales tax. By subsequent amendment item 36 pertaining to betel leaves ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... held that these goods will not fall in the entry relating to "electrical goods" (entry 15), but rather in entry No. 17 which reads as under: "17. Agricultural implements including chaff-cutters and Persian wheels or parts thereof and electric motors including monobloc pump sets of 3 to 7.5 horse-power." To the same effect is the judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the case of Karnal Machinery Store v. Assessing Authority, Karnal [1973] 31 STC 3, wherein it was held that monobloc pump sets, purpose of which is to pump water cannot be classed as electric goods simply because these worked by electric energy. In the present case also, going by functional test, a television set certainly operates as a wireless reception apparatus to receive sounds and images by radio waves. Merely because entry 4 has some items included by specific reference, namely, such as radio or radiotelegraphy and does not include television sets, does not mean that the intention was to exclude television sets. It is pertinent to note that in the Schedule to the 1975 Act, the television as an article has been specifically included in entry No. 4, which otherwise remains more or less identically ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e Queen's Bench in AttorneyGeneral v. Edison Telephone Company of London [1880] LR 6 QBD 244, where the question arose whether the Edison Telephone Company, London, infringed by installation of telephones, the exclusive privilege of transmitting telegrams which was conferred upon the Postmaster-General under an Act of 1869, because the company had contended that since telephones were unknown at the time when those Acts were passed, the definition of telegraphy could not comprehend telephone. This contention was rejected by the court. This view, as propounded in the aforesaid two cases was endorsed by the Supreme Court in the case of Vishnu Agencies (Pvt.) Ltd. v. Commercial Tax Officer [1978] 42 STC 31 holding that: "These decisions proceed on the principle that if after the enactment of a legislation, new facts and situations arise which could not have been in the contemplation of the Legislature, statutory provisions can justifiably be applied to those facts and situations so long as the words of the statute are in a broad sense capable of containing them." (emphasis* supplied) It is a different matter that on the facts of the given case, the ratio of the said judgments was ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of the Act, and that the "television sets" cannot be deemed to be covered by entry No. 4 or any other entry of the First Schedule, so as to make them exigible to the 10 per cent rate of sales tax. In view of the foregoing discussion, we answer question No. 1 in favour of the department and against the assessee. In so far as question No. 2 is concerned, it requires modification to the extent that the opinion of the court is required as to whether T.V. cabinets, decorative panels, turn knobs, printed circuit boards and boards were spare parts and accessories of "wireless reception instruments and apparatus" within the meaning of entry No. 4 of the First Schedule. It seems to be by mistake that the question refers to them as "component parts" because entry No. 4 contains the expression "spare parts" and not "component parts". In fact, it is assessee's contention that the entry at the relevant time pertained only to "spare parts", and these items were not so, and thus could not be subjected to sales tax at the rate of 10 per cent but at the general rate of 5 per cent under section 5(1)(c) of the Act. Mr. Chawla appearing for the respondent contended that there was, in fact, no d ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rein the ratio of the decision in Amar Radio Cabinet Works [1968] 22 STC 63 (Bom) was followed. This judgment also took note of the meaning of "spare parts" as defined in Webster's Third New International Dictionary, as under: "An extra part of a vehicle or machine kept for use in emergency or replacement." The court in that case was dealing with the body of a motor vehicle and held that it cannot fall within the expression "spare parts". On the same parity of reasoning a television cabinet can also not fall within the category of "spare parts", because as held in that case, the expression "spare parts" cannot be equated with "parts" with reference to the colour that is lent by the word "spare". The case relied upon by Mr. Chawla and reported as State of Gujarat v. B.G. Batwara Co. [1968] 22 STC 202 (Guj), related to tyres and there can be no disputing the proposition that tyres can always be used as "spare parts" as it is a matter of common knowledge that they are kept for replacement and can be used in emergency. The fact that at different points of time the relevant entries, some time contained the expression "component parts" and some time "spare parts", and in the 19 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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