Purchase tax liability requires recorded statutory preconditions; mere non-payment of tax is insufficient to attract the levy.

Purchase tax under section 6-A of the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act could be levied only if the assessing authority first recorded the statutory preconditions, including the relevant liability basis and the facts bringing the transaction within the provision. Here, the levy was founded merely on non-payment of tax, without findings establishing the required foundational facts or post-purchase conditions. That omission meant section 6-A(2)(c) was not properly attracted, so the challenge to the levy failed and the Tribunal's order was sustained.

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Issues: Whether tax could be levied under section 6-A(2)(c) of the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957 on the turnover relating to the purchase of forest coupes firewood in the absence of recorded findings satisfying the statutory preconditions.

Analysis: Section 6-A contemplates liability only when the assessing authority first records that the goods are liable to tax under the Act and that, because of the specified circumstances, no tax is payable under section 5 or section 6, or, in the case of purchase from a person other than a registered dealer, when the requisite factual ingredients and one of the statutory post-purchase conditions are established. The levy in the present case was founded only on the circumstance that no tax had been paid, without recording the essential findings required by the provision. In the absence of those foundational facts, invocation of section 6-A was not justified.

Conclusion: The levy under section 6-A(2)(c) was not attracted on the facts, and the order sustaining the Tribunal was correct.

Final Conclusion: The revision failed and the Tribunal's decision was sustained, leaving the assessee free from the disputed levy.

Ratio Decidendi: A purchase-tax provision can be invoked only when the statutory preconditions are expressly found on the record; a bare non-payment of tax is insufficient to attract liability.

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