TMI Blog1981 (7) TMI 81X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... question whether aluminium rolled products and extrusions can be described as "metal" for the purposes of the notifications dated December 1, 1973 and May 30, 1975 issued under the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948. 2. The appellant, the Hindustan Aluminium Corporation Limited, carries on the business of manufacturing and dealing in aluminium metal and various aluminium products. 3. On December 1, 1973 the State of Uttar Pradesh notified under Section 3A(2) of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948 that the turnover in respect of the following goods set forth in Item No. 6 of the attached schedule would be liable to tax at all points of sale at 3.1/2 % : - "6. All kinds of minerals and ores and alloys except copper, tin, zinc, nickel or alloy of these metals only." On may 30, 1975 the State of Uttar Pradesh published a notification, under Section 3A(2A) of the Act, in which Item No. 1 of the schedule read as follows :- "1. All kinds of minerals, ores, metals and alloys except those included in any other notification issued under the Act." and a rate of 2% was prescribed. The notification dated December 1, 1973 was amended and Item No. 6 was deleted. 4. On August 14, 1975 the U.P. Legisl ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d as different commercial commodities from the ingots and billets and therefore outside the category of "metals and alloys". The rolled products included plates, coils, sheets, circles and strips. The extrusions were manufactured in the shape of bars, rods, structurals, tubes, angles, channels and different types of section. In regard to properzi redraw rods, the High Court considered that a further enquiry was necessary and therefore directed the Sales Tax Officer to re-examine the matter. 8. The present appeals are directed against the part of the High Court judgment refusing relief in regard to rolled products and extrusions. It is vehemently contended that the High Court has erred in holding that the rolled products and extrusions are new commercial commodities distinct from the aluminium ingots and billets from which they are prepared. It is urged that they represent the marketable form merely of ingots and billets. We have been referred to a number of documents and publications as well as the Aluminium (Control) Order, 1970, and the submission is that when reference is made to aluminium as a metal it includes rolled products and extrusion products. 9. We are not satisfied ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... or all of the metals specified in Clause (a). A sheet of copper only or tin only or nickel only or zinc only is regarded as belonging to a distinct entry in the notification from cooper, tin, nickel or zinc in its unfabricated form. This schematic arrangement has been followed in Notification No. ST-3500/X-dated May 10, 1956, Notification No. ST-1366/X-990-1956, dated April 1, 1960 and Notification No. ST-9377/X-906 (AB-4)-1971, dated October 6, 1971. In all those notifications the framers of the notifications followed the scheme that one clause dealt with the metal in its original saleable form and another separate clause dealt with the fabricated forms in which it was saleable as a new commodity. It is admitted before us on behalf of the appellant that aluminium ingots and billets are saleable commodities as such in the market. In the circumstances, the inference is irresistible that when such a notification refers to a metal, it refers to the metal in the primary or original form in which it is saleable and not to any subsequently fabricated forms. It is true that in the notification, dated May 30, 1975, as amended retrospectively on August 14, 1975, the entry reads : "All ki ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he original groundnut oil could be put would also be the use to which the hydrogenated oil could be applied. It seems to us that the case is distinguishable. We then turn to State of Madhya Bharat (now the State of Madhya Pradesh) and Others v. Hiralal, (1966) 17 S.T.C. 313 the next case place before us. This court held that scrap iron, when put through a process of re-rolling to produce attractive and acceptable forms of iron and steel in the shape of bars, flats and plates, must be regarded as continuing to be "iron and steel" for the purpose of the notification issued under the Madhya Bharat Sales Tax Act. The case has, however, been distinguished by this Court in State of Tamil Nadu v. Pyare Lal Malhotra (1976) 37 S.T.C. 319 and 325-1983 E.L.T. 1321 on the ground that the nature of the raw material from which the goods were made was the decisive criterion for deciding the earlier case. It observed : "The language of the notification involved there made it clear that the exemption was for the metal used. In the cases before us now, the object of single point taxation is the commercial commodities and not the substance out of which it is made. Each commercial commodity here bec ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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