Separately charged freight and forwarding costs excluded from sale price under sales tax law, favouring the assessee.

Railway freight and forwarding/incidental charges separately shown in invoices were held not to form part of the sale price under section 2(h) of the Orissa Sales Tax Act, 1947. The statutory definition excludes freight or delivery cost where it is separately charged, and that exclusion was treated as mandatory once the charges were separately indicated. Because the invoices separately identified those amounts and there was no basis to treat them as consideration for the goods, they were not deductible from turnover as part of the sale price. The issue was answered in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether railway freight and forwarding/incidental charges separately shown in the bills formed part of the sale price under section 2(h) of the Orissa Sales Tax Act, 1947 and were therefore not deductible from turnover.

Analysis: The statutory definition of "sale price" excludes the cost of freight or delivery when such cost is separately charged. The charges in question were separately indicated in the invoices, and there was no basis to treat them as part of the consideration for the sale of the goods. The language of the provision made the exclusion mandatory where the freight or delivery cost was separately charged.

Conclusion: The freight and forwarding/incidental charges separately charged were not includible in the sale price, and the question was answered in the affirmative in favour of the assessee.

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