Single-point sales tax on minor forest produce bars further levy on resale after tax is paid at first sale.

Minor forest produce sold by the forest department on a fixed price basis, with sales tax recovered at the first sale, was treated as tax-paid goods in the contractor's hands. The court distinguished arrangements that are only licences to collect forest produce from an actual sale of identifiable goods, and applied the single-point levy principle under the Act. As sales tax had already been paid on the first sale, no further tax could be levied on the contractor's resale of shikakai and baibidang, and the assessment was held unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether shikakai and baibidang purchased under the forest contract, on which sales tax had already been recovered at the time of the first sale, were tax-paid goods in the hands of the contractor so as to attract no further sales tax on their resale.

Analysis: The contract showed that the forest department sold the produce for a fixed price and recovered sales tax in addition to the contractual amount. The prior payment of sales tax on the first sale was not disputed. The Court distinguished cases involving mere licences to collect forest produce, where no sale of goods as such existed, and treated the present arrangement as one of purchase of identifiable minor forest produce. Since sales tax under the Act was a single-point levy payable on the first sale, the goods, after tax had already been paid on the forest department's sale, remained tax-paid goods when subsequently sold by the petitioner.

Conclusion: The petitioner was not liable to pay further sales tax on the turnover of shikakai and baibidang sold by him, and the assessment order was unsustainable.

Ratio Decidendi: Where minor forest produce is sold by the forest department on payment of sales tax at the first sale, the purchaser holds it as tax-paid goods and cannot again be assessed to sales tax on its resale under a single-point taxation scheme.

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