Import-linked sales exemption applies where the purchase occasions import, placing the turnover outside State sales tax.

Sales of goods that occasion import into India fall within the import exemption and are outside the State sales tax levy. The statutory test under the Central Sales Tax Act is whether the sale occasions the import or is effected by transfer of title documents before the goods cross customs frontiers. On the Tribunal's factual finding that the disputed purchases did occasion the movement of goods into India, the turnover was held exempt from tax under the State Act. The revision therefore failed.

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Issues: Whether the turnover from the disputed transactions was exempt from sales tax as sales in the course of import, and therefore outside the charging provision of the State Act.

Analysis: Section 38(ii) of the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957 excludes sales or purchases that take place in the course of import into India. Section 5(2) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 determines when a sale is deemed to be in the course of import, namely where the sale occasions the import or is effected by transfer of documents of title before the goods cross the customs frontiers of India. The decisive question was whether the purchase occasioned the import. The Tribunal recorded a finding of fact that the transactions in question did occasion the movement of the goods into India on account of the purchase.

Conclusion: The turnover was covered by the import exemption and could not be taxed under the State Act. The revision failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the fact-finding authority concludes that the purchase occasioned the import of the goods into India, the transaction falls within the statutory import exemption and is outside the State sales tax levy.

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