Agricultural implements exemption does not cover centrifugal water pumps used only to lift water for irrigation.

Centrifugal water pumps used to lift water from tube wells were held not to fall within the ordinary meaning of "agricultural implements" under the exemption notification. The Court treated agricultural implements as apparatus or instruments used in agriculture itself, and distinguished pumping water from the agricultural operation of irrigation. It noted that irrigation begins only after water has been drawn and carried towards the land, and that a pump merely lifting water is not itself performing that function. The possible ultimate use of the water for irrigation was insufficient to confer exemption from sales tax.

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Issues: Whether centrifugal water pumps used for pumping water from tube wells are exempt from sales tax as "agricultural implements" under the relevant exemption notification issued under section 4 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act.

Analysis: The expression "agricultural implements" was construed according to its ordinary meaning as apparatus or instruments employed in agriculture. A centrifugal water pump was held to be used only for lifting water from a well, not for performing an agricultural operation itself. Irrigation may be an agricultural process, but that process begins after the water has been drawn and taken towards the land to be irrigated. The Court distinguished a centrifugal pump from a persian wheel, which may directly irrigate land and may therefore stand on a different footing. The fact that pumped water may ultimately be used for irrigation was held insufficient to make every such pump an agricultural implement.

Conclusion: Centrifugal water pumps are not agricultural implements within the notification and are not exempt from sales tax on that basis.

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