Commercial intention to supply surplus goods makes turnover taxable, even without profit motive under sales tax law.

Regular and repeated supply of new, unused surplus goods and workshop materials can constitute taxable turnover where the assessee deliberately acquired and retained the goods with a commercial intention to sell or supply them in the course of business. Absence of profit motive, or the fact that the goods were part of capital assets, is not conclusive. Frequency and volume of transactions are relevant indicators but not decisive by themselves. On the stated facts, the goods were held in excess of immediate requirements and supplied to sister concerns and others as part of integrated commercial activity, supporting treatment of the assessee as a dealer in those goods and rendering the turnover assessable to sales tax.

---

---

Issues: Whether the turnover arising from regular and repeated supply of new unused surplus goods and workshop materials purchased and held by the assessee for onward sale to sister concerns and others constituted taxable turnover of a dealer under the sales tax law.

Analysis: The decisive test was whether the assessee, at the time of purchase and during retention of the goods, had the commercial intention to deal with them by way of sale or supply in the course of business. Mere absence of profit motive, or the fact that the goods formed part of capital assets, was not conclusive. Frequency and volume of transactions were relevant but not by themselves decisive. On the facts found, the goods were deliberately acquired and held in excess of immediate requirements, were new and unused, and were regularly supplied to sister concerns and others as part of an integrated commercial activity. Those findings supported the inference that the assessee carried on the business of dealing in such goods.

Conclusion: The turnover was rightly brought to tax as assessable turnover and the assessee's contention that it was not a dealer in the goods failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an assessee deliberately acquires and holds goods with the intention of supplying or selling them in a commercial manner, the transactions form part of its business and the resulting turnover is taxable even if the sales are made without profit.

---