TMI Blog1991 (4) TMI 125X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ss is running a cold storage plant and also selling spare parts of refrigerators on a small scale. The relevant accounting year is calendar year 1972 and the assessment year 1973-74. The assessee claimed during the assessment proceedings before the Income-tax Officer that it was an "industrial company" as defined by section 2(7)(c) of the Finance Act, 1973, and, as such, it was entitled to be charged at a lower rate of tax. This claim of the assessee was rejected by the Income-tax Officer without any discussion on this point. The Appellate Assistant Commissioner, in appeal, accepted the assessee's claim but he relied on the fact that, for the assessment years from 1964-65 to 1966-67, the Income-tax Commissioner himself had accepted the asse ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tended that processing necessarily involved some change in the state of the goods and, as cold storage merely preserved the goods stored therein from decay and preserved their original state, it did not amount to processing of the goods. It is true that the Delhi High Court, in the decision cited by Shri Jetley, has taken the view that a company engaged in the running of a cold storage cannot be said to be an industrial company entitled to concessional rate of income-tax. In doing so, the Delhi High Court placed reliance upon the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Chowgule and Co. P. Ltd. v. Union of India [1981] 47 STC 124. The Delhi High Court seems to have emphasised the observations of the Supreme Court made in the said case t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... igh Court has not referred to the observations of the Supreme Court in Chowgule's case, [1981] 47 STC 124, we see from the discussion in the report that that was also a case concerning cold storage. The Punjab and Haryana High Court also relied on CIT v. Yamuna Cold Storage [1981] 129 ITR 728 for arriving at its conclusion. Looking at the matter on principle, we are of the view that the change to be brought about as contemplated by the observations of the Supreme Court in Chowgule's case [1981] 47 STC 124 need not always be a positive one. In a situation such as the assessee's, the fact that putting the commodity in the cold storage plant brings about an arrest in the natural process of decay-on account of temperature and humidity-would its ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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