Trade tax liability depends on sale consideration and transfer of title, not mere agency services in handling goods.

A commission or handling agent arranging coal movement, supervising loading, collecting payments from consumers and remitting them to the colliery is not a dealer under the U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948 unless it carries on buying, selling, supplying or distributing goods as part of a commercial transaction. Liability depends on receipt of sale consideration for goods transferred by way of sale. Where title in the coal never passes to the intermediary and it receives no sale consideration, the activity is treated as service rather than business of trading in goods, and trade tax does not apply.

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Issues: Whether a commission or handling agent, who arranged movement and loading of coal, collected payment from consumers, and remitted payment to the colliery without any transfer of title in goods to itself or receipt of sale consideration, was a "dealer" liable to trade tax under the U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948.

Analysis: Liability under the Act depended upon there being an aggregate amount received for goods supplied or sold by way of sale. The definition of "dealer" covered a person carrying on business of buying, selling, supplying or distributing goods, including an agent only where the agent's activities involved such commercial dealing in goods. The definition of "business" excluded mere service or profession not involving purchase or sale of goods. On the facts, the assessee acted only as an agent for small-scale industries, arranged railway movement, supervised loading, gave bank guarantee, collected money from consumers, and paid the colliery. The title in the coal never passed to the assessee and no sale consideration was received by it. The activity was therefore in the nature of service, not business of buying or selling goods.

Conclusion: The assessee was not a dealer and was not liable to tax under the U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948.

Ratio Decidendi: An intermediary is not a dealer for trade tax purposes unless it carries on the business of buying, selling, supplying or distributing goods and receives sale consideration on a transaction involving transfer of property in goods; mere service functions as an agent do not attract liability.

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