Form III-A requirement under sales tax rules triggers consumer-sale presumption when declarations are not furnished.

Section 3-AAA of the U.P. Sales Tax Act and rule 12-A require a registered dealer purchasing goods without tax payment to furnish Form III-A, and rule 12-A(2) creates a rebuttable presumption that the sale is to the consumer unless the prescribed certificate and contrary proof are produced. In the absence of Form III-A declarations, the presumption operated against the dealer. The claim that tax liability should instead fall on an earlier seller was rejected because there was no material showing that the same commodity was purchased and resold in the same form. The assessment treating the sales as consumer sales was therefore upheld.

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Issues: Whether the assessee's sales of brass wire and alloys were to be treated as sales to the consumer under section 3-AAA of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948 and rule 12-A of the U.P. Sales Tax Rules, in the absence of Form III-A declarations.

Analysis: The assessment record and the material noticed by the authorities showed that the dealer was not merely reselling goods as such but was engaged in manufacturing activity. The scheme of section 3-AAA and rule 12-A(1) requires a registered dealer seeking to purchase goods without payment of tax to furnish Form III-A, and rule 12-A(2) raises a presumption that the sale is to the consumer unless the contrary is proved to the satisfaction of the assessing authority and the prescribed certificate is produced. As no Form III-A certificates were obtained or furnished by the revisionist, the statutory presumption operated against it. The contention that the liability should instead be fastened on the sellers to the revisionist was rejected, since there was no material to show that the goods were the same commodity purchased and resold in the same form.

Conclusion: The sales made by the revisionist were correctly treated as sales to the consumer, and the assessment was rightly upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the statutory declaration required by rule 12-A is not furnished, section 3-AAA raises a presumption that the sale is to the consumer, and that presumption is not displaced merely by asserting that tax should be levied in the hands of an earlier seller without proof that the same commodity was resold in the same form.

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