TMI Blog1979 (10) TMI 90X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... g the amount paid by way of trade discount. 2. The assessee is a private limited company carrying on business as sole selling agent for a certain brand of welding electrodes. For the goods supplied to retailers, it charged them the catalogue price less trade discount. The catalogue price is the price which the retailer is entitled to charge the consumer. For the assessment year 1971-72, the returns filed under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 showed a taxable turnover of inter-State sales amounting to Rs. 8,71,624/-. This figure was derived by deducting from the catalogue price the amount of Rs. 1,06,708/- paid as trade discount by the assessee to retailers. The Sales Tax Officer refused to allow the deduction and computed the taxable turno ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e under that contract has to be included in the taxable turnover. 4. We have considered the matter carefully and in our judgment the appeal must fail. 5. At the outset, it is appropriate that we set forth the two relevant definitions contained in the Central Sales Tax Act. Section 2(j) defines "Turnover" to mean "the aggregate of the sale prices received and receivable by him (the dealer) in respect of sales of any goods in the course of inter-State trade or commerce .....". And Section 2(h) of the Act defines the expression "sale price" to mean "the amount payable to a dealer as consideration for the sale of any goods, less any sum allowed as cash discount according to the practice normally prevailing in the trade....". It is true that a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t from and outside it prior to it. It is immaterial that the definition of "sale price" in Section 2(h) of the Act does not expressly provide for the deduction of trade discount from the sale price. Indeed, having regard to the circumstance that the sale price is arrived at after deducting the trade discount, no question arises of deducting from the sale price any sum by way of trade discount. Nor is there any question here of two successive agreements between the parties, one providing for sale of the goods at the catalogue price and the other providing for an allowance by way of trade discount. Having regard to the nature of a trade discount, there is only one sale price between the dealer and the retailer, and that is the price payable ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... future purchases. The rebate of bonus discount was not allowed as a deduction by the Madras High Court and, in our opinion, rightly so. It was in the nature of an incentive bonus paid to distributors whose net purchases exceeded the target figure. It did not, and could not affect the sale value of the goods sold by the assessees. The sale price remained undisturbed in the contract between the parties. 8. In our judgment, the sale price which enters into the computation of the assessee's turnover for the purpose of assessment under the Central Sales Tax Act is obtained after deducting the trade discount from the catalogue price. The trade discount allowed by the assessee cannot be included in the turnover. 9. In the result, the appeal fail ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|