Controlled-price sales may pass on tax already suffered without separate bill disclosure, with penalty deletion upheld.

Where goods are sold at a price controlled by law, a registered dealer may collect from the purchaser the tax already suffered on those goods under the proviso to section 22(1) of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959. The absence of a separate tax entry in the bill does not defeat that entitlement if the evidence shows the tax was in fact paid at the earlier purchase stage. On that basis, deletion of penalty under section 22(2) was justified, and the Tribunal's order sustaining deletion of the penalty was upheld.

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Issues: Whether the assessee was entitled, under the proviso to section 22(1) of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959, to collect from the purchaser the tax already suffered on the goods sold at a controlled price, and whether the penalty under section 22(2) was rightly deleted.

Analysis: The proviso to section 22(1) permitted a registered dealer to collect an amount towards tax already suffered where the sale or purchase price of the goods was controlled by law. The goods in question were groundnut oil, the price of which was controlled, and the assessee had purchased the same oil on payment of sales tax before supplying it to the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation at the controlled rate. The absence of a separate entry of tax in the bill did not matter, because the proviso did not require separate disclosure, and the evidence showed that the tax included in the price had actually been paid on the earlier purchase.

Conclusion: The assessee was entitled to pass on the tax already suffered, and the deletion of penalty under section 22(2) was justified.

Final Conclusion: The revision failed, and the Tribunal's order deleting the penalty was sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the price of goods is controlled by law, a registered dealer may collect the tax already suffered on those goods from the purchaser, and the proviso does not require that such tax be shown separately in the bill.

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