Freight charges treated as part of sale price and included in taxable turnover under the sales tax law.

Freight charges were includible in taxable turnover where, during the period when the Cement Control Order was not operative, the governing contract treated freight as part of the price actually charged to buyers. Section 2(h) of the Central Sales Tax Act excludes freight only when it is separately charged and not part of sale price. Applying the contractual terms and the turnover records, the freight component was held to form part of the sale consideration, so exclusion was not available and the amounts were liable to be included in total turnover.

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Issues: Whether freight charges collected by the assessee were includible in the total turnover as part of the sale price under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, for the relevant assessment years when the Cement Control Order was not in force.

Analysis: Section 2(h) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 excludes freight from the definition of sale price only where it is separately charged and not part of the price. The governing contract between the parties became material during the period when the Cement Control Order was not operative. On the terms of the agreement, the freight component was treated as part of the price collected from buyers, and the turnover returns also reflected freight as embedded in the sale consideration. The distinction drawn by prior decisions between periods governed by a control order and periods governed only by contract was applied, and freight was held includible where it formed part of the price actually charged.

Conclusion: The freight charges were part of the sale price and were liable to be included in the taxable turnover. The assessee was not entitled to exclusion of the disputed freight amounts.

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