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TMI Blog1982 (3) TMI 220X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... steel plates imported from Japan. They are declared goods subject to single point sales tax at the point of first sales in this State. The Board of Revenue, Madras, passed an order of suo motu revision against the M.M.T.C. By that order, they restored an assessment made by the assessing authority on the M.M.T.C. of a turnover amounting in all to Rs. 26,59,787. The Board held that the said turnover represented sales of declared goods by the M.M.T.C. which were first sales in the State and assessable to sales tax as such. This determination is questioned by the M.M.T.C. before us. The Board's order contains an account of the relevant facts bearing on their determination. They may be briefly restated. Steel plates and tin plates are required ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... de out in the name of the M.M.T.C. as consignee. On payment, of the entire value of the goods by the respective allottees, the M.M.T.C. effected delivery to them. This was done in two different ways. In some cases the M.M.T.C. advised their clearing agents to deliver the consignments to the allottees ex wharf at the Madras Port. In some other cases, the M.M.T.C. transferred the shipping documents in favour of the allottees even before the vessel berthed at the harbour, in which event, as endorsees of the bills of lading, the allottees made their own arrangements to take delivery of the cargo. On these facts the Board spelt out two distinct transactions in these goods. According to the Board, there was first a sale by the Japanese firm to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... M.T.C. only played the part, may be a considerable part, of an agent for import. The imports were but a single transaction. Only the Board, from their peculiar focus, saw them double. Even on the Board's assumption that the M.M.T.C. were the importer of the goods from Japan, there is no basis for the further assumption that the M.M.T.C. had effected sales of those goods to the allottees after the goods arrived in this country. The law of sales tax does not, and cannot, treat as a sale what the general law governing sale of goods does not regard as a sale. Under the general law, a transaction is a sale only if there is, at the back of it, either an express or implied contract of sale. If no contract of sale exists, there is no sale either, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ey are first sales in this State. Equally superfluous is the search for statutory exemptions as if some kind of exemption or other would be the only means of the M.M.T.C. obtaining immunity from taxation of the disputed turnover of Rs. 26,59,787. For instance, one of the contentions seriously urged before for the M.M.T.C. related to a part of the disputed turnover, i.e., Rs. 18,20,444. The contention was that in respect of this turnover the transactions must be held to be transactions in the course of import, since the M.M.T.C. had effected delivery of shipments to the concerned allottees by transfer of the shipping documents even while the vessel carrying the goods was at sea, anchored off the coast of Madras. The Board dismissed this con ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the preexisting law. We do not agree. We hold that section 2(ab) breaks new ground, and there is nothing to show that it was retrospective in operation. We accord- ingly reject all the contentions based on this provision. This, however, does not affect our determination that the Board misdirected themselves in holding that the M.M.T.C. had effected sales to the allottees of declared goods imported into India from Japan. A few reported cases were cited in argument. We think we need notice only one of them, and even that only because it might help to further clarify the position in the present case. The decision is that of the Supreme Court in Murarilal Sarawagi v. State of A.P. [1977] 39 STC 294 (SC). This case was cited by the learned Gove ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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