TMI Blog2004 (12) TMI 660X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... usiness of manufacture and sale of textile items. It has a factory located in industrial area now at Dewas. Petitioner purchased coal for use in the factory. That coal is burnt in the boiler and half burnt coal in the form of coal ash is discharged from the boiler. The petitioner sold the coal ash. The controversy is what would be the rate of tax payable on the sale of the coal ash. According to the petitioner the sales tax is payable at the rate of four per cent under entry 1 of Part IV of Schedule II of the Act. The contention of the petitioner that the sales tax is payable at the rate of four per cent on the sale of coal ash was negatived by the Revenue and an assessment order was framed on March 29, 1996 holding that the coal ash i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 3, 1969, reported in [1972] 29 STC 418 (MP)(App.). Shri Chaphekar further submitted that the decision in Samrathmal Dhoolchand's case [1972] 29 STC 418 (MP)(App.), directly covers the issue involved in the present petitions, as the court was concerned with the rate of tax on the sale of coal ash. Shri Chaphekar pointed out that even after the decision in Hukumchand Mills case [1988] 71 STC 101 (MP)[FB]; [1987] MPLJ 570, once again the question of the rate of tax on sale of coal ash came up for consideration in Mansingh Oil Mills Pvt. Ltd. v. Additional Regional Assistant Commissioner of Sales Tax [M. P. No. 1891 of 1983, decided on September 8, 1992]. It was again held that rate of tax on the sale of coal ash would be four per cent. It ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... g from these decisions is that while construing the word 'coal' in entry 1 of Part III of Schedule II the test that would be applied to what would be the meaning which persons dealing with coal and consumers purchasing it as fuel would give to that word. A sales tax statute, being one levying a tax on goods, must, in the absence of a technical term or a term of science or art, be presumed to have used an ordinary term as coal according to the meaning ascribed to it in common parlance. Viewed from that angle, both a merchant dealing in coal and a consumer wanting to purchase it would regard coal not in its geological sense but in the sense as ordinarily understood and would include 'charcoal' in the term 'coal'. It is ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... erent commercial values but the question in the present cases is what would be the rate of tax payable on the sale of coal ash. It is not disputed that the petitioner is liable to pay tax on the sale of coal ash. The question is only with regard to the rate of tax. In the considered opinion of this court the test laid down by the Supreme Court in Commissioner of Sales Tax, Madhya Pradesh, Indore v. Jaswant Singh Charan Singh [1967] 19 STC 469, applies on all fours to the present cases. Even after the Full Bench decision, the division Bench in Mansingh's case [M. P. No. 1891 of 1983, decided on September 8, 1992 Madhya Pradesh High Court], took the view that rate of sales tax would be four per cent as the coal ash is covered by entry No. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ed Government Advocate, a careful perusal of the decision reported in P. Chitta Reddi v. State of Andhra Pradesh [1969] 24 STC 317 (AP), reveals that the question before the court was with regard to the taxability of the coal ash. Great emphasis was given on a decision reported in I.T.C. Bhadrachalam Paperboards Limited v. State of Andhra Pradesh [1999] 114 STC 58 (AP) and a division Bench decision of the Andhra Pradesh High Court given in I.T.C. Bhadrachalam Paperboards Limited v. State of Andhra Pradesh [1999] 114 STC 58 (AP), which has been disapproved by the Supreme Court in ITC Bhadrachalam Paper Boards Ltd. v. State of A. P. [2002] 126 STC 541. In the considered opinion of this court in all those three cases, the question for consider ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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