TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1974 (5) TMI 99
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....k District, got a contract from the forest department for cutting trees. This contract was operated for only four months in 1969-70 and the whole financial year of 1970-71. During the year in question, i.e., 1969, the firm got a contract for Rs. 68,000, while they actually sold goods worth Rs. 1,10,000, after cutting the trees. The Assessing Authority was of the view that since this firm, after felling the trees, cut them into logs and then converted them into rafters, planks and firewood, etc., the entire process by which the goods were thus produced fell within the definition of "manufacture" and the firm was not covered by the definition of "general" dealer for whom the taxable quantum was Rs. 40,000. The firm was held to be a "manufactu....
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....at this expression has been explained by the Supreme Court in Union of India and Another v. Delhi Cloth and General Mills Co. Ltd. and Others A.I.R. 1963 S.C. 791. There it was held: "According to the learned counsel 'manufacture' is complete as soon as by the application of one or more processes, the raw material undergoes some change. To say this is to equate 'processing' to 'manufacture' and for this we can find no warrant in law. The word 'manufacture' used as a verb is generally understood to mean as 'bringing into existence a new substance' and does not mean merely 'to produce some change in a substance', however minor in consequence the change may be. This distinction is well brought about in a passage thus quoted in Permanent Editio....
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....Madhya Pradesh, Indore[1969] 24 S.T.C. 101., where it was held that by felling standing timber trees, cutting them and converting some of them Into ballis, a dealer did not alter their character as timber. Counsel for the department, however, referred to a Single Bench decision of the Calcutta High Court in Shaw Brothers and Company v. State of West Bengal[1963] 14 S.T.C. 878. , where the learned Judge observed that the sawing of planks from timber or sizing the same amounted to "manufacture" and the person carrying on such a business was a "manufacturer". The learned Judge went on to hold that when planks were sawed out of logs, what was produced was a different thing from logs, capable of being put to different uses and, therefore, when ....