Electric motors excluded from sales tax concession under Schedule A entry 17, as prior interpretation of the same provision governed.

Electric motors were held not to fall within the excepted goods in entry 17 of Schedule A to the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948 because a prior Division Bench had already construed that entry as excluding electric motors from goods used for generation, transmission and distribution of electric power. The Court found no compelling reason to depart from that interpretation, and decisions relied on by the taxpayer were treated as inapposite because they concerned different subject matter. The effect was that electric motors remained liable to sales tax at 10 per cent, with the Revenue succeeding.

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Issues: Whether electric motors fall within the excepted goods in entry 17 of Schedule A to the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948 and are therefore taxable at the lower rate of six per cent.

Analysis: A prior Division Bench decision on the same statutory entry had already held that electric motors are not electric equipment required for generation, transmission and distribution of electric power. The Court found no reason to differ from that view. The reliance placed on other decisions was held to be inapposite because they dealt with different subject-matter and did not govern the construction of entry 17.

Conclusion: Electric motors do not fall within the ambit of the excepted goods in entry 17 of Schedule A to the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948, and are liable to sales tax at 10 per cent, in favour of the Revenue.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a co-ordinate Bench has already construed the same sales tax entry, and the later case presents an identical question, that construction governs unless there is a compelling reason to differ.

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