Controlled pricing and credit notes determine taxable sale price; writ relief remains available on a substantial legal question.

Where LPG pricing is controlled by a statutory or governmental mechanism, the taxable sale price under VAT and central sales tax is the net amount actually realised after the final revised price, not the provisional invoice value. Credit notes issued later to reflect the quarterly fixed price were treated as giving effect to the true sale consideration, so the taxing authority erred in disallowing deduction from turnover. The writ petition was also held maintainable because the dispute involved a substantial question on interpretation of sale price, and the availability of an appellate remedy did not bar writ relief in the facts of the case.

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Issues: (i) Whether the sale price for VAT and central sales tax purposes had to be determined on the basis of the provisional invoice price or the revised price reflected through subsequent credit notes under the LPG price-fixation mechanism; (ii) Whether the writ petition was not maintainable because an alternative remedy was available.

Issue (i): Whether the sale price for VAT and central sales tax purposes had to be determined on the basis of the provisional invoice price or the revised price reflected through subsequent credit notes under the LPG price-fixation mechanism.

Analysis: The statutory definition of sale price under the VAT enactment and the Central Sales Tax Act permits exclusion of discounts allowed according to trade practice, and the Court held that the pricing mechanism for LPG was not left to the seller's discretion. The provisional price was subject to quarterly revision by the public pricing authorities, and the credit notes issued later merely gave effect to the final controlled price. In that situation, the amount ultimately realised after deduction of the revised price and credit notes represented the true sale consideration, and the taxing authority erred in treating the provisional invoice value as the taxable sale price.

Conclusion: The revised price reflected through credit notes had to be taken as the sale price, and the disallowance of deduction from turnover was ; the finding was in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether the writ petition was not maintainable because an alternative remedy was available.

Analysis: The challenge raised a question of interpretation of sale price under the tax statutes, and the Court found that the existence of an appellate remedy did not bar writ jurisdiction in the facts of the case. Where the impugned assessment action involved a substantial legal issue and the authority's approach was found to be erroneous, insistence on the statutory remedy was held to be unwarranted.

Conclusion: The objection based on alternative remedy was rejected, and the writ petition was held maintainable, in favour of the assessee.

Final Conclusion: The assessment orders were quashed and the taxpayer obtained relief on the merits of the sale-price dispute as well as on maintainability.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the price of goods is controlled under a statutory or governmental pricing mechanism and later credit notes merely reflect the final fixed price, the taxable sale price is the net amount actually realised and not the provisional invoice value; the existence of an alternative remedy does not bar writ relief where the challenge turns on a substantial legal question and the impugned action is found erroneous.

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