Single point taxation depends on commercial identity of goods; steel scrap and incidental tin sales remained taxable.

M.S. steel cuttings and scrap arising in a manufacturing process were treated as distinct commercial commodities from steel bars and rods under item 4(c) of the Second Schedule to the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959; the benefit of single point taxation was denied because the goods did not retain the identity of the earlier taxed commodity. Sales of empty tins and jars were also treated as incidental business sales and included in taxable turnover. The article states that goods listed in a sales tax entry are separately taxable commodities, and single point taxation applies only where the goods sold remain commercially identifiable with the goods previously taxed.

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Issues: (i) Whether M.S. steel cuttings and scrap arising from the assessee's manufacturing process fell within item 4(c) of the Second Schedule to the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 so as to qualify for single point taxation as steel scrap, steel ingots, steel billets, steel bars and rods; (ii) whether the sales of empty tins and jars were taxable as incidental sales in the course of the assessee's business.

Issue (i): Whether M.S. steel cuttings and scrap arising from the assessee's manufacturing process fell within item 4(c) of the Second Schedule to the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 so as to qualify for single point taxation as steel scrap, steel ingots, steel billets, steel bars and rods.

Analysis: The entry in the Second Schedule was treated as exhaustively enumerating distinct taxable commodities, and the goods named in it were not regarded as interchangeable merely because they belonged to the broad genus of iron and steel. The controlling test was whether the goods retained their identity as the same commercial commodity. Applying that principle, steel scrap could not be equated with steel bars or rods. The cuttings and leavings were themselves dealt with and sold as scrap, which was commercially different from the original rods and had not suffered tax as such.

Conclusion: The claim that the steel cuttings and scrap were entitled to exemption as second sales of declared goods was rejected, and the turnover was held taxable in favour of Revenue.

Issue (ii): Whether the sales of empty tins and jars were taxable as incidental sales in the course of the assessee's business.

Analysis: Sales of empty tins and jars were treated as sales incidental to the business carried on by the assessee and therefore fell within the taxable turnover.

Conclusion: The sales of empty tins and jars were held taxable in favour of Revenue.

Final Conclusion: The appeals failed in entirety, and the orders of the Board of Revenue sustaining the assessment were upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: Goods named in a sales tax entry are separately taxable commercial commodities, and the benefit of single point taxation is available only if the goods sold retain the identity of the commodity earlier taxed.

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