Optional warranty charges excluded from sale price where separately contracted and recovered only from customers who opt in.

Optional after-sales warranty or service charges, when separately contracted and recovered only from customers who choose the scheme, are not consideration for the sale of goods and therefore do not form part of the sale price or taxable turnover under the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, 1994. The controlling principle is that only amounts intrinsically connected with the sale can be included in sale price; because the issue was already governed by binding precedent on identical facts and the charge remained optional and separate, no substantial question of law survived.

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Issues: Whether optional service charges collected under a separate after-sales warranty arrangement formed part of the sale price and taxable turnover under the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, 1994.

Analysis: The revision was examined in the light of earlier decisions holding that where warranty or service charges are not compulsory and are separately charged only from customers who opt for the scheme, such amounts are not consideration for the sale of goods. The controlling principle applied was that only the amount payable as consideration for the sale, and sums intrinsically connected with the sale, can be included in sale price. Since the controversy had already been settled by binding precedent on identical facts and the charge in question was optional and separately recovered, no substantial question of law survived for consideration.

Conclusion: The optional service charges were not part of the sale price or taxable turnover, and the revision petition failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Amounts recovered under a genuinely optional and separately contracted after-sales warranty or service scheme do not form part of the sale price or taxable turnover.

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