Sales-tax situs turns on the composite transaction, and deduction claims require proof of statutory conditions and declaration.

For sales-tax purposes, the situs of tea-chest sales depended on the composite character of the transaction, not merely on where title passed or delivery to a carrier occurred. Because the contracts, payment, and delivery arrangements showed elements spread across States and the goods were for despatch and consumption outside Assam, the transactions were not intra-State sales taxable in Assam. A deduction from gross turnover for sales to registered dealers could be claimed only on proof of the statutory ingredients, including a proper declaration as a permissible mode of proof; the authorities were entitled to insist on that proof, and the deduction was not established on the record.

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Issues: (i) Whether tea-chest transactions arranged F.O.R. Karimganj and delivered to steamer stations in Assam for onward despatch outside the State were intra-State sales taxable in Assam or inter-State/outside sales beyond Assam's taxing power under the Constitution and the Assam Sales Tax Act, 1947. (ii) Whether deduction from gross turnover under section 15(1)(b) of the Assam Sales Tax Act, 1947 could be refused for want of the prescribed declaration where the assessee claimed sales to registered dealers.

Issue (i): Whether tea-chest transactions arranged F.O.R. Karimganj and delivered to steamer stations in Assam for onward despatch outside the State were intra-State sales taxable in Assam or inter-State/outside sales beyond Assam's taxing power under the Constitution and the Assam Sales Tax Act, 1947.

Analysis: The decisive question was not merely where property passed under the Sale of Goods Act, but whether the sale, viewed as a composite transaction, was wholly completed within Assam. The contract, payment, and delivery arrangements showed that material elements of the transactions were spread across States, while the goods were delivered outside Assam for consumption. Article 286(1) of the Constitution and the explanation to it required the situs of such a transaction to be fixed according to the constitutional fiction, and the State of the exporting place could not tax an outside sale simply because title passed there or delivery to a carrier occurred within the State. The constructive-delivery rule under section 39(1) of the Sale of Goods Act was held relevant only inter se the contracting parties and not determinative of tax situs.

Conclusion: The transactions were not intra-State sales taxable in Assam; the answer to the first question was in the negative, against the Revenue.

Issue (ii): Whether deduction from gross turnover under section 15(1)(b) of the Assam Sales Tax Act, 1947 could be refused for want of the prescribed declaration where the assessee claimed sales to registered dealers.

Analysis: The assessee had to establish that the sales were made to registered dealers and that the goods were specified in the purchasers' registration certificates for resale. The Court held that the authorities were entitled to insist upon proof of those facts and upon a proper written declaration as a mode of proof. The earlier decision striking down rule 80 did not eliminate the requirement of proving the statutory ingredients of the deduction, and the objection that no declaration could be insisted upon was rejected. In addition, the point had not been properly pressed before the appellate and revisional authorities and did not give rise to a question of law on the record.

Conclusion: The deduction claim was not established; the answer to the second question was in the affirmative, against the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The reference was answered by holding that Assam could not tax the disputed transactions as intra-State sales, but the claimed deduction for sales to registered dealers was not allowed on the facts and record as presented.

Ratio Decidendi: For sales-tax purposes, the situs of a sale depends on the composite constitutional character of the transaction and not merely on the place where property passes or delivery to a carrier occurs; a statutory deduction must be proved by compliance with the substantive conditions and the legally permissible mode of proof.

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