Turnover includes dealer-collected sales tax absent statutory authorisation to recover it as an agent of the State.

Turnover under section 2(s) of the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957 includes the total sale consideration and any other sum charged by the dealer. Sales tax collected from purchasers, whether shown separately in the bill, taken through debit notes, or parked in a suspense account, remained part of the sale price because the Act did not authorise the dealer to collect the levy as an agent of the State. In the absence of a statutory duty on the buyer to pay tax to the seller or to treat the amount as separate State money, the collection was includible in taxable turnover. McDowell was distinguished on the basis that it concerned direct payment to authorities.

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Issues: Whether sales tax collected by a dealer from the purchaser, whether shown separately in the bill or collected through debit notes and kept in a suspense account, forms part of the dealer's turnover under section 2(s) of the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957.

Analysis: Turnover under section 2(s) includes the total amount charged as consideration for the sale and any other sum charged by the dealer. The Act did not impose any legal obligation on the vendor to collect sales tax from the buyer, nor any corresponding duty on the buyer to pay it as tax to the seller. The dealer was free to recover or not recover any amount from the purchaser, could treat the amount as his own, and was not required to keep it separate or account for it as money held for the State. In the absence of a statutory provision authorising the dealer to recover tax as an agent of the State, the amount collected from the buyer, even if described as sales tax, remained part of the sale price. The decision in McDowell was distinguished because it dealt with duties paid directly by purchasers to the authorities, while the line of authority recognising exclusion from turnover depended on express statutory authorisation to recover the levy from the purchaser.

Conclusion: Sales tax recovered by the dealer from the buyer was includible in turnover, and the absence of a separate bill entry or the use of a suspense account did not alter that position.

Final Conclusion: The appeals failed because the amounts collected from purchasers were properly treated as part of the taxable turnover under the Act.

Ratio Decidendi: In the absence of statutory authorisation to recover the levy from the purchaser, any amount collected by the dealer from the buyer in connection with the sale forms part of the sale consideration and is includible in turnover.

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