TMI Blog1981 (9) TMI 264X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sale in the State. If the contention of the assessee is accepted, they will be liable to tax only at the rate of 3.5 per cent or 4 per cent, as the case may be, for two different periods during the concerned assessment year 1974-75. The assessing authority considered that aluminium rods must be considered to fall within entry 64. The Appellate Assistant Commissioner took a different view holding that the rods fall completely outside the scope of that entry. The Board of Revenue set aside the decision of the Appellate Assistant Commissioner in suo motu proceedings in revision. According to the Board, aluminium rods must fall under entry 64. The question for our consideration is, which view of the nature of the aluminium rods is correct. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the familiar expression "bar soap" was mentioned, which is a term well-known both to shop-keepers and housewives. On the other extreme, the same expression "bar" was found to have been used to denote appurtenances in the gymnasium, such as a parallel bar and a horizontal bar. The dictionary meanings and illustrations from every day speech cannot, however, control the meaning of the expression used in the schedule to the Sales Tax Act. While the function of the schedule is to denote the precise commodities which are subject to single point levy, the enabling provision which brings to the fore the several items of the schedule is found in section 3(2) of the Act. Section 3(1) levies a general tax on the total turnover of a dealer in goods o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s in the schedule. The Supreme Court has recently laid down what approach a court of construction has to pursue when a controversy is raised as to the scope of a particular entry, or as to whether any given type of commodities can or cannot be assigned to the given entry. In Annapurna Biscuit Mfg. Co. v. Commissioner of Sales Tax [1981] 48 STC 254 (SC), the Supreme Court had had occasion to deal with a notification issued by the Government of Uttar Pradesh under the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948, rendering cooked food liable for a concessional rate of assessment. The question before the Supreme Court was, whether biscuits can be brought within the description "cooked food". In the course of their decision, the Supreme Court chalked out the appro ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a cross section of a square or a hexagon or other many sided shape. In contrast, a rod is always envisaged by people who buy or sell things in the shops as a long piece, which is round in cross section. As marketable commodities, therefore, there do exist two distinct descriptions: a "bar" on the one hand, and a "rod" on the other, even though they might be made of the same metal and might possibly be used in the manufacture of the same kind of articles. Reference was made at the Bar to a subsequent development in the law by way of an amendment to entry 64. This was thought to have some significance in the present discussion, if not as an aid to construction of the entry. The amendment in question was made by the legislature by Tamil Nad ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... loyed in the entry are not themselves goods, but indicate merely the substance of which the goods referred to in sub-items (i) to (x) are made. As pointed out earlier, section 3(2) proceeds on the footing that "goods" must be "mentioned" in the First Schedule in order to be brought within the single point levy. Hence, the argument of the learned Government Pleader ignoring the wide variety of aluminium articles and, particularly, the article of the description "bar" and the omission of the article "rod" is opposed to the very direction and purpose of section 3(2), besides putting a wrong construction of the entry itself. We must, therefore, reject the contention of the learned Government Pleader as wholly untenable. For all the above reas ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
