Electric motors outside excepted goods category, so general sales tax rate applies instead of concessional treatment.

Electric motors were treated as outside the excepted goods category in entry No. 17 of Schedule A to the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948, because the same statutory entry had already been construed in an earlier Division Bench ruling. On that interpretation, electric motors do not qualify for concessional treatment and remain liable to tax at the general rate rather than the concessional rate. The classification follows the prior judicial reading of the entry, which excludes electric motors from the excepted category.

---

---

Issues: Whether electric motors fell within the excepted goods under entry No. 17 of Schedule "A" of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948 and were taxable at the concessional rate, or were liable to tax at the general rate.

Analysis: The questions referred by the Tribunal had already been considered in an earlier Division Bench decision interpreting entry No. 17 of Schedule "A" to the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948. That decision held that electric motors do not fall within the excepted category and are not entitled to concessional treatment. The classification was therefore governed by the interpretation previously adopted for the same statutory entry.

Conclusion: Electric motors are not excepted goods under entry No. 17 of Schedule "A" and are liable to tax at 10 per cent, not at the concessional rate of 6 per cent, in favour of the Revenue.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a statutory entry excluding excepted goods has already been judicially construed, electric motors falling outside that excepted category are taxable at the general rate and cannot claim concessional treatment.

---