Financing commission agent status does not create dealer liability where no sale or transfer of property in goods occurs.

Mere financing of buyers and sellers for commission and interest does not, by itself, make a person a dealer under the C.P. and Berar Sales Tax Act, 1947. A dealer must carry on the business of selling or supplying goods, and a sale requires transfer of property in goods for consideration. Where the account books show only financing arrangements and the person does not enter the transactions as seller or supplier, the dealings are not sales by a dealer. Holding documents of title and financing the parties does not, on these facts, confer dominion over the goods.

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Issues: Whether the assessee, on the facts found, was merely a financing commission agent and not a dealer in respect of charcoal sales, and whether he could be deemed to have dominion over the goods by reason of financing the purchasers and sellers and holding the documents of title.

Analysis: Under section 2(c) of the C.P. and Berar Sales Tax Act, 1947, a dealer is one who carries on the business of selling or supplying goods, whether as principal or agent, and under section 2(g) a sale involves a transfer of property in goods for consideration. The account books showed that the transactions were only financing arrangements with commission and interest, and that the assessee himself was not entering into the dealings as seller or supplier. On those facts, the transactions did not amount to sales by a dealer, and mere financing of buyers and sellers did not confer dominion over the goods.

Conclusion: The assessee was not a dealer in relation to the charcoal transactions, and the answer on dominion over the goods was in the negative.

Ratio Decidendi: Mere financing of buyers and sellers for commission and interest, without the assessee himself selling or supplying the goods or acquiring property in them, does not make him a dealer or constitute a sale under the Act.

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