Newspaper exemption ends when old copies become waste paper; unraised notification claims are not referable in revision.

Old newspapers sold only as waste paper were held not to retain the statutory character of "newspapers" for sales tax exemption under section 4 of the Sales Tax Act, because that exemption applies to newspapers as articles of daily necessity and not to paper that has ceased to be read as a newspaper. The article also states that a notification-based exemption claim could not be examined in reference jurisdiction where it had not been raised in revision and did not arise from the revisional order. The stated ratio is that exempt status is lost when newspapers become waste paper, and only questions arising from the revisional order are referable.

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Issues: (i) Whether old newspapers sold as waste paper were exempt from sales tax under section 4 of the Sales Tax Act. (ii) Whether the exemption claimed under the notification could be entertained as a referable question.

Issue (i): Whether old newspapers sold as waste paper were exempt from sales tax under section 4 of the Sales Tax Act.

Analysis: The exemption in section 4 covered newspapers as articles of daily necessity. Newspapers may lose that character with the lapse of time and, when sold after they have ceased to be read as newspapers, they are no longer newspapers in their statutory sense. An item that has become waste paper is not within the exempted category merely because it was once printed and published as a newspaper.

Conclusion: The sale of old newspapers as waste paper was not exempt under section 4, and the answer was against the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether the exemption claimed under the notification could be entertained as a referable question.

Analysis: The jurisdiction of the revisional authority extended only to questions of law arising out of the order made under section 10. The assessee had not raised the notification-based claim in revision, so that question did not arise from the revisional order and could not validly be referred.

Conclusion: The question based on the notification was not answerable in reference jurisdiction and was declined.

Final Conclusion: The substantive exemption claim failed, and the additional notification-based question was rejected as beyond the scope of the reference.

Ratio Decidendi: An article exempted as a newspaper loses that character when, by lapse of time, it is sold only as waste paper; a question not raised in revision and not arising from the revisional order is not referable in reference jurisdiction.

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