Inward freight and turnover: exclusion depends on proved agency and separately charged freight under the statutory definition.

Under the U.P. Trade Tax Act, inward freight forms part of turnover unless the dealer affirmatively proves facts bringing the transaction within the exclusion for sale price, applied on the same basis as section 2(h) of the CST Act. A claimed agency relationship must be supported by evidence of principal-agent dealings, including privity of contract and the factual basis for separate freight charges in the bills. On the stated facts, there was no proof of agency and no clear examination of whether freight was separately charged, so the issue required fresh consideration by the Tribunal.

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Issues: Whether inward freight formed part of turnover where the dealer claimed to act as an agent of the brick-kiln owners and asserted that freight was separately charged.

Analysis: The definition of turnover under section 2(i) of the U.P. Trade Tax Act was treated as in pari materia with the definition of sale price under section 2(h) of the Central Sales Tax Act. On that basis, freight can be excluded only where the transaction is not on a principal-to-principal basis and the factual foundation for exclusion is established. The record disclosed no evidence of agency, no privity of contract with the brick-kiln owners, and no finding by the Tribunal on who placed the purchase orders or took delivery. The earlier finding of the assessing authority that the dealer acted on its own account was not properly displaced. At the same time, exclusion of freight also required a clear finding that it was separately charged in the bills, which had not been examined by the appellate authorities.

Conclusion: In the absence of proof of agency, inward freight would ordinarily form part of turnover; however, because the material question whether freight was separately charged was not conclusively determined, the matter required fresh consideration by the Tribunal.

Ratio Decidendi: Freight is excluded from turnover only when the statutory conditions for exclusion are affirmatively established, and a dealer claiming agency must prove a principal-agent relationship and the factual basis for separate freight charges.

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