Sale price includes separately recovered sales tax under Bengal sales tax law, and the amounts enter gross turnover.

Under the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941, amounts separately charged and recovered by a dealer as sales tax were treated as part of the sale price because the tax burden fell on the dealer and the extra recovery formed part of the consideration paid by the buyer. As a result, those sums were also included in the dealer's gross turnover, which is computed by reference to aggregate sale prices received during the relevant period. The contrary argument based on the English purchase-tax scheme was rejected because that legislation contained an express deduction mechanism not found in the Bengal Act.

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Issues: (i) Whether sale price under Section 2(h) of the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941 includes amounts separately charged and realised as sales tax by the dealer; (ii) whether such amounts form part of gross turnover for assessment purposes.

Issue (i): Whether sale price under Section 2(h) of the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941 includes amounts separately charged and realised as sales tax by the dealer.

Analysis: The statutory charging scheme imposed the tax on the dealer, not on the purchaser. The definition of sale price covered the amount payable to the dealer as valuable consideration for the sale of goods. Where the dealer increased the price and recovered an additional amount described as sales tax, the amount remained part of what the buyer paid for the goods and was not a separate tax levied on the purchaser. The English purchase-tax provisions relied upon were materially different because they contained an express deduction mechanism not found in the Bengal Act.

Conclusion: Yes. Amounts separately charged and realised as sales tax are included in sale price under Section 2(h) of the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941, and the issue is decided against the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether such amounts form part of gross turnover for assessment purposes.

Analysis: Gross turnover was defined by reference to the aggregate of sale prices received by the dealer during the relevant period. Once the additional recovery from buyers was held to be part of sale price, it necessarily followed that those sums entered the gross turnover. Section 5 and the deduction under Section 5(2)(b) did not justify excluding such amounts, because the dealer remained the person taxed and any recovery from customers merely represented an increase in price to recoup that burden.

Conclusion: Yes. Such amounts are includible in gross turnover, and the issue is decided against the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Under the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941, amounts recovered by a dealer from buyers as separately stated sales tax form part of the valuable consideration for the sale and therefore enter the dealer's gross turnover for assessment.

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