Works contract classification turns on whether materials are incidental, not on every use of goods in execution.

A galvanizing and fabrication arrangement was held to be a works contract rather than a contract of sale under the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941. The decisive test was whether the main object was transfer of property in specific goods for a price or execution of work with materials used only incidentally. As the railway supplied the fabricated steel portals and retained property in the goods, and the contractor's zinc was merely an input used in performing the work, the materials did not convert the transaction into a sale of goods. Sales tax was therefore not exigible on the galvanizing work.

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Issues: Whether the galvanizing and fabrication arrangement was a works contract or a contract of sale liable to sales tax under the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941.

Analysis: The contract showed that the railway supplied the fabricated steel portals and retained property in the goods, while zinc used for galvanizing was merely an input for executing the work. The decisive test was whether the main object of the arrangement was transfer of property in specific goods for a price, or execution of work with materials used only accessory or incidental to that work. On the terms of the contract and the nature of the transaction, the materials used by the contractor did not convert the arrangement into a sale of goods.

Conclusion: The transaction was a works contract and not a sale of goods; sales tax was not exigible on the galvanizing work.

Ratio Decidendi: Where materials are used only as an accessory or incident of the execution of a works contract and property in the relevant goods does not pass under a contract to sell specific goods for a price, the transaction is not a sale liable to sales tax.

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