Deferred-payment interest and hundi charges are outside sale price when charged only as compensation for instalments.

Interest charges and hundi charges collected only for allowing deferred payment of the balance sale consideration are not part of the sale price under section 2(29) of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959. The statutory definition covers valuable consideration for the sale and sums charged for things done in respect of the goods at or before delivery, but these charges were not linked to any act done to the goods. As the sale price was fixed separately and the interest operated merely as compensation for instalment payment, the charges were distinct from the sale price and were not includible in turnover.

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Issues: Whether interest charges and hundi charges collected in respect of deferred payment terms formed part of the sale price under section 2(29) of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959.

Analysis: The definition of sale price covers the valuable consideration paid or payable for the sale and any sum charged for anything done in respect of the goods at or before delivery. The charges in question were not linked to anything done to the goods; they arose only because the parties agreed to a facility for payment of the balance of the price by instalments. The contractual documents showed that the sale price was fixed separately and that interest was payable merely as compensation for deferred payment. On that footing, interest and the resulting hundi charges were distinct from the sale price and could not be treated as part of the turnover.

Conclusion: Interest charges and hundi charges do not form part of the sale price and are not includible in turnover.

Ratio Decidendi: Charges imposed solely for the facility of deferred payment, and not as part of the consideration for the sale itself, are not part of sale price unless the statutory definition expressly brings them within it.

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