Turnover tax threshold computation includes full assessment-year turnover, even where levy applied only from a later date.

For liability to turnover tax under section 5(2A) of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963, the dealer's total turnover for the entire assessment year had to be taken into account when testing the prescribed threshold. Although turnover tax was levied only from 1 July 1987, the computation of total turnover was not confined to post-introduction turnover. The provision treated total turnover as the full year's turnover, and pre-1 July 1987 turnover could not be excluded from the liability assessment. On that basis, the turnover tax levy was correctly determined and the challenge failed.

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Issues: Whether, for the purpose of deciding liability to turnover tax under section 5(2A) of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963, the dealer's total turnover for the entire assessment year could be taken into account even though turnover tax was levied only from 1 July 1987.

Analysis: Section 5(2A) made turnover tax payable by every dealer whose total turnover in a year exceeded the prescribed limit, and the provision did not confine the computation of total turnover to the period after the tax was introduced. The tax could be levied only on turnover accruing from 1 July 1987, but for determining whether the threshold for liability was crossed, the turnover for the whole financial year had to be reckoned. The concept of total turnover continued to embrace the entire turnover of the year, and the assessee had no basis to exclude the pre-1 July 1987 turnover from the computation.

Conclusion: The liability to turnover tax was correctly determined by taking the total turnover of the full assessment year into account, and the challenge to the levy failed.

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