Ordinary meaning of machinery controls exemption; separately sold cables do not qualify unless shown to form part of a composite machine.

Where an exemption is limited to sales of machinery and the statute does not define that term, the word is to be read in its ordinary commercial sense. On that basis, machinery means a combination of mechanical contrivances working together to perform a specific function, and cables sold separately do not ordinarily qualify as machinery. They may be treated as part of machinery only if shown to form part of a composite machine or assembly. Because there was no factual finding on whether the cables were so used or intended to be assembled, the exemption could not be upheld on the existing record and required fresh factual determination.

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Issues: Whether cables sold to a manufacturer setting up a new industry were exempt from sales tax under the notification granting exemption to the sale of machinery.

Analysis: The exemption applied only to the sale of machinery to a manufacturer holding a valid registration. The term "machinery" was not defined in the Act, so its ordinary and commercial meaning governed. On that meaning, machinery denotes a combination of mechanical contrivances working together to perform a specific function. Cables, when sold alone, do not ordinarily answer that description. They may become part of machinery if fitted with other components in a composite setup, but a bare sale of cables cannot automatically be treated as a sale of machinery. Since there was no finding whether the cables sold formed part of machinery or were intended to be assembled into machinery, the Tribunal had decided the matter without the necessary factual basis.

Conclusion: The exemption could not be upheld on the existing finding, and the matter required a fresh factual determination on the use and role of the cables.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an exemption is confined to machinery and the statutory term is undefined, the word must be construed in its ordinary commercial sense, and cables sold separately do not qualify as machinery unless shown to form part of a composite machine.

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