Old gold ornaments are not bullion, and resale in a different condition preserves purchase-tax liability.

Old gold ornaments are not bullion in their ordinary and popular sense; bullion denotes raw gold or silver in ingots or bars, not ornaments. Under the purchase-tax provision, liability arises where taxable goods are bought and are not resold in the same form and condition. Because the ornaments were purchased in an unusable state, then cleaned and improved before resale, the resale was in a different condition and the purchase remained taxable. A later notification treating old ornaments as bullion could not apply retrospectively to alter the assessment year in question.

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Issues: Whether old gold ornaments purchased by the dealer could be treated as bullion so as to escape tax under section 3-AAAA, and whether the subsequent sale after cleaning and improving in a different condition prevented liability on the purchase turnover.

Analysis: Old gold ornaments are not bullion in their ordinary and popular sense, as bullion means raw gold or silver in the form of ingots or bars and does not include ornaments. The statutory liability under section 3-AAAA arises where goods taxable at the point of sale to the consumer are purchased and the purchasing dealer does not resell them in the same form and condition. Here, the ornaments were purchased in an unusable state and were later cleaned and improved before sale, so the resale was not in the same condition as the purchase. A later notification treating old ornaments as bullion could not govern the assessment year in question because it was not retrospective.

Conclusion: The purchase of old gold ornaments was taxable under section 3-AAAA, and the assessee could not avoid liability by treating such ornaments as bullion or by relying on a non-retrospective notification.

Final Conclusion: The revision succeeded, and the Tribunal's view on the turnover of ornaments was set aside.

Ratio Decidendi: Old gold ornaments are not bullion in the popular sense, and where purchased goods are resold in a different form or condition, the purchase becomes taxable under the relevant purchase-tax provision.

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