Importer turnover threshold must be tested on the importing business alone under strict construction of taxing law.

A fiscal charging provision that fixes different taxable limits for different classes of dealers must be applied to the importer's own importing business turnover, not by clubbing that turnover with receipts from other activities. Applying strict construction of taxing statutes, any ambiguity in the charging provision is resolved in favour of the assessee. On that interpretation, liability arises only if the turnover of the imported-goods business itself crosses the statutory threshold; otherwise no tax, licence fee, registration fee, or penalty can be imposed on that basis.

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Issues: Whether, under the charging provision of the Madhya Bharat Sales Tax Act, a dealer importing goods became liable to tax only when the turnover of the imported goods alone exceeded Rs. 5,000, or whether the turnover of imported goods could be clubbed with other business turnover for that purpose.

Analysis: The charging provision fixed different taxable limits for different classes of dealers. Read as a whole, it showed that the liability of an importer had to be tested by reference to the turnover of that importing business and not by aggregating it with turnover from other activities. The Court relied on the principle that a fiscal statute must be construed strictly and that any ambiguity in a charging provision must be resolved in favour of the subject. On that interpretation, the petitioner's liability to tax could arise only if the turnover of imported cycle parts itself crossed the statutory limit.

Conclusion: The liability threshold for an importer was Rs. 5,000 in respect of the imported-goods business alone, and the petitioner was not liable to tax, licence fee, registration fee, or penalty on the basis adopted by the Sales Tax Officer.

Final Conclusion: The assessment and consequential coercive demands could not stand, and relief was granted against recovery for the relevant years as well as prospectively until the statutory threshold was crossed.

Ratio Decidendi: In a fiscal charging provision that differentiates classes of dealers, the taxable limit for an importer must be applied to the turnover of the importing business itself, and any ambiguity must be resolved strictly in favour of the assessee.

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