Commission agent sales and incidental buyer charges can fall within dealer status, sale proceeds and turnover under sales tax law.

A commission agent selling goods for non-resident principals in Uttar Pradesh was treated as a dealer under the U.P. Sales Tax Act because the definition of dealer covered a person carrying on the business of selling and supplying goods, including sales effected through an agent. The scheme of the Act and the licensing provisions for agents supported that construction. Weighing dues charged to buyers were also held to form part of the sale proceeds, since weighing was incidental to the sale and delivery of the goods and the charge arose from the sale transaction. Retention of that amount by the agent did not exclude it from turnover.

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Issues: (i) Whether commission agents selling goods of non-resident principals in Uttar Pradesh were dealers under the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948. (ii) Whether weighing dues charged from buyers formed part of the sale proceeds and turnover.

Issue (i): Whether commission agents selling goods of non-resident principals in Uttar Pradesh were dealers under the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948.

Analysis: The definition of dealer covered a person carrying on the business of selling and supplying goods in Uttar Pradesh, and the words relating to commission or remuneration were wide enough to include sales made through an agent. Sale is a transfer of property in goods, and such transfer may validly be effected through an agent. The explanation deeming an agent of a person resident outside Uttar Pradesh to be a dealer was treated as applying where the principal's business was carried on through the agent, while the agent selling goods in the course of his own business also answered the main definition. The scheme of the Act, including the provision for licensing certain agents, supported the view that an agent selling goods on commission could be a dealer.

Conclusion: The assessees were dealers under the main definition of dealer.

Issue (ii): Whether weighing dues charged from buyers formed part of the sale proceeds and turnover.

Analysis: Turnover means the aggregate of proceeds of sale by a dealer, and proceeds include sums charged for anything done by the dealer in respect of the goods sold at or before delivery. The weighing of goods was treated as incidental to completing the sale, and the charge arose out of the sale transaction. The fact that the assessees remitted the price to the principals and retained the weighing dues did not alter the character of the entire receipt as sale proceeds.

Conclusion: Weighing dues were part of the sale proceeds and were includible in turnover.

Final Conclusion: The reference was answered against the assessees on the substantive issues decided, with the sales tax authorities' position substantially upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: A commission agent who carries on the business of selling goods in Uttar Pradesh is a dealer, and any charge recovered from the buyer for services incidental to the sale and delivery of the goods forms part of the sale proceeds and turnover.

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