Separate tax on packing material fails where goods are sold in one composite transaction without proof of independent sale.

Packing material sold within a single composite transaction could not be taxed separately unless the facts showed an independent sale of that material for consideration. The last proviso to section 5(1) of the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, 1954 was treated as part of the rate structure for computing tax on taxable turnover, not as a charging provision that created a legal fiction of a separate sale. Because the property in the packing material had not been shown to pass independently of the principal goods, a separate levy on the packing material was not sustainable on the facts found.

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Issues: Whether tax could be levied separately on packing material contained in goods sold under a single composite transaction by treating the last proviso to section 5(1) of the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, 1954 as creating a deemed independent sale of the packing material.

Analysis: The levy was sustained only by invoking the last proviso to section 5(1) without first establishing, as a matter of fact, that the packing material itself had been sold independently of the principal goods. The proviso was treated as part of the rate structure for computing tax on taxable turnover, not as a charging provision creating a legal fiction of an independent sale. A separate levy on packing material required proof that property in the packing material had passed for consideration referable to that material, and that the parties intended such independent transfer. In a single sale transaction for one composite price, such a separate taxable sale could not be presumed merely because different rates were prescribed.

Conclusion: Tax could not be levied separately on the packing material on the facts found, and the revision failed.

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