Canteen supply under contract can amount to taxable sales when a cooperative society sells food for consideration.

A cooperative society running a canteen under contract was treated as carrying on business and making taxable sales when it purchased raw materials, prepared food, and supplied meals against coupons for consideration. The statutory duty of the factory occupier to provide canteen facilities did not change the character of the society's separate commercial arrangement, because the society was not itself discharging that duty. The broad definition of "business" under the Assam General Sales Tax Act covered the activity, and the transfer of property in food for consideration was held to be a sale liable to sales tax. The assessment and related tax demand were upheld.

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Issues: Whether the catering activities of the cooperative society under the BRPL canteen contract constituted a business of sale of goods so as to render it a dealer liable to sales tax under the Assam General Sales Tax Act, 1993.

Analysis: The society was engaged under a tendered work order to purchase raw materials, prepare meals and snacks, and supply them against coupons at rates fixed by BRPL, with payment being made by BRPL. The fact that BRPL had a statutory obligation under section 46 of the Factories Act, 1948 to provide canteen facilities did not alter the character of the society's activity, because the society itself was a separate contracting entity and not the occupier discharging the statutory duty. The statutory definition of 'business' in section 2(5) of the Assam General Sales Tax Act, 1993 is wide enough to include such commercial supply activity, and the transaction involved transfer of property in food for consideration. The Court distinguished cases where canteen facilities are run by the occupier itself in compliance with a statutory mandate, and held that the present arrangement was a commercial contract for supply of goods.

Conclusion: The society was carrying on business and effecting sales within the meaning of the Act, and the sales tax assessment was valid.

Final Conclusion: The writ petition failed, and the tax demand based on the assessment, appeal, and revision orders was upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a third-party cooperative society runs a canteen under contract and supplies food for a price against coupons, the transactions constitute sales in the course of business and attract sales tax, even if the factory for whose benefit the canteen is run is under a statutory duty to provide canteen facilities.

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