Entry tax applies to KIADB industrial area units and sewing machines under a retrospective machinery notification.

An industrial area allotment under the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board Act does not take a unit outside the statutory "local area" for entry tax purposes, so the levy is not avoided on that ground. A retrospective notification that brings "machinery (all kinds)" within the tax net, while excluding only agricultural machinery, covers sewing machines on their ordinary meaning as completed machines. An earlier interpretation of a different schedule entry on "industrial machinery" does not control the later notification. The revisional order restoring entry tax was upheld and the challenge failed.

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Issues: (i) Whether a unit located in an industrial area allotted by the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board falls outside the expression "local area" for the purposes of entry tax; (ii) Whether sewing machines fall within the expression "machinery (all kinds)" under the relevant notification so as to attract entry tax.

Issue (i): Whether a unit located in an industrial area allotted by the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board falls outside the expression "local area" for the purposes of entry tax.

Analysis: The expression "local area" under the Karnataka Tax on Entry of Goods Act, 1979 was already settled by binding precedent. An industrial area declared under the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board Act does not cease to be part of a municipality, municipal corporation, or panchayat area for entry tax purposes. The location of the assessee's unit in a KIADB allotment therefore did not exclude it from the charging provision.

Conclusion: The assessee's unit remained within the local area and the entry tax levy was not defeated on that ground.

Issue (ii): Whether sewing machines fall within the expression "machinery (all kinds)" under the relevant notification so as to attract entry tax.

Analysis: The earlier ruling that sewing machines were not "industrial machinery" under the then-existing schedule entry did not govern the present notification. The State notification issued under the Act, with retrospective effect, specifically brought "machinery (all kinds)" within the tax net, excluding only agricultural machinery. Applying the ordinary meaning of machinery, a sewing machine is a completed machine and thus squarely answers that description. The appellate authority had ignored the retrospective notification and had relied only on the earlier schedule entry interpretation.

Conclusion: Sewing machines were covered by the notification as "machinery (all kinds)" and were exigible to entry tax.

Final Conclusion: The revisional order restoring the levy was upheld, and the assessee's challenge failed.

Ratio Decidendi: For entry tax purposes, an industrial area allotment does not take the goods outside the "local area", and where a retrospective notification expressly taxes "machinery (all kinds)", a sewing machine falls within that description notwithstanding an earlier decision under a different schedule entry.

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