Turnover inclusion of unrecovered excise duty fails where the duty was not charged to the purchaser as sale consideration.

Taxable turnover is confined to the consideration actually realised from the purchaser, so excise duty borne by the dealer cannot be added unless it was recovered from the buyer as part of the sale price; on that basis, the disputed amount was held unsustainable in turnover. The objection that the matter had attained finality was also rejected because the earlier appellate order had itself remitted the issue for further enquiry, leaving the controversy open and permitting the Tribunal to direct a proper investigation where the assessment record was inadequate. The remand order was therefore set aside and the addition relating to the disputed amount was deleted.

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Issues: (i) Whether excise duty allegedly borne by the dealer, but not shown to have been charged from the purchaser, could be included in the dealer's turnover. (ii) Whether the earlier order had attained finality so as to bar the Tribunal from remanding the matter for fresh enquiry.

Issue (i): Whether excise duty allegedly borne by the dealer, but not shown to have been charged from the purchaser, could be included in the dealer's turnover.

Analysis: The decisive question was the amount of consideration passing from the purchaser to the dealer for the sale. The taxable turnover could include only the sale price realised from the buyer, not the dealer's internal expenditure or burden. Excise duty paid by the manufacturer may form part of sale price only when it is recovered from the purchaser as part of the consideration. Where the department never doubted that the sale price paid by the purchaser had already been included in turnover, the enquiry into whether excise duty was separately paid by the dealer was misconceived.

Conclusion: The disputed excise duty could not be added to turnover merely because it was allegedly paid by the dealer; the inclusion of the amount was unsustainable and the assessee succeeded on this issue.

Issue (ii): Whether the earlier order had attained finality so as to bar the Tribunal from remanding the matter for fresh enquiry.

Analysis: The earlier appellate order had itself remitted the matter for further investigation and therefore did not finally conclude the controversy. In those circumstances, the subsequent appellate/revisional proceedings remained maintainable and the Tribunal had jurisdiction to direct proper enquiry if the assessment record was found inadequate.

Conclusion: The finality objection was rejected and the Tribunal was not barred from dealing with the matter on remand.

Final Conclusion: The revision was allowed, the Tribunal's remand order was set aside, and the assessment addition relating to the disputed amount was dismissed with costs to the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: Turnover is confined to the consideration actually payable by the purchaser for the sale, and a dealer's unrecovered expenditure, including excise duty not charged to the buyer, cannot be added to turnover merely because it was incurred by the dealer.

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