Depreciation rate for trucks follows actual business use, not public carrier registration or occasional hire receipts.

Depreciation on trucks depended on their use: where the vehicles were mainly employed in the assessee's own business of transporting limestone, and not in the business of running them on hire, the higher depreciation rate for hire vehicles was unavailable. Registration as public carriers and occasional hiring receipts did not change the predominant use. The trucks therefore fell under the lower depreciation entry applicable to vehicles used in the assessee's own business, and depreciation was restricted to 30% rather than 40%.

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Issues: Whether the assessee was entitled to depreciation on trucks at 40% instead of 30%.

Analysis: The trucks were found to have been used mainly in the assessee's own business of transporting limestone and not in the business of running them on hire. Mere registration of the vehicles as public carriers and occasional hiring receipts did not alter the real nature of use. On that basis, the vehicles fell within the lower depreciation entry applicable to use in the assessee's own business rather than the higher entry for vehicles used in the business of running them on hire.

Conclusion: The assessee was not entitled to depreciation at 40%; depreciation was allowable only at 30%, in favour of the Revenue.

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