1978 (4) TMI 208

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....iz., mixing of distilled water with methonol in certain proportion and selling the same as 'Methimix' does not amount to manufacture of goods within the meaning of section 2(17) of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959?" The respondent is a dealer registered under the said Act. By an application dated 14th October, 1971, made under section 52(1) of the said Act, to the Commissioner of Sales Tax, the respondent sought determination of the correct rate of tax payable on the sale of Methimix effected under a certain invoice, a copy of which was annexed to the application. The respondent applied for determination of the question as to whether mixing of distilled water with methonol amounted to manufacture of goods under section 2(17) of the said Ac....

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....t aside the order of the Commissioner of Sales Tax in the determination proceedings, holding that the respondent having purchased methanol from a registered dealer would be entitled to the benefit of resale while selling the diluted methanol in the way in which it had done. As no process of manufacture was involved, the sales by the respondent would amount to resales within the meaning of section 2(26) of the said Act and hence the amount of the said resales would be liable to be deducted from the taxable turnover under section 8 of the said Act. The question referred to us arises from this decision of the Tribunal. Clause (17) of section 2 of the said Act gives a very extended definition to the term "manufacture". The said clause reads ....

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....activities which in ordinary parlance cannot be considered as manufacture. The contention of Mr. Sheth, the learned Advocate for the respondent, is that even after methanol was mixed with distilled water by the respondent, the article still remained the same, namely, a mixture containing methanol and distilled water, and hence it could not be said that any new commercial commodity had been brought into being by the activity of mixing methanol and distilled water carried out by the respondent. In our view, this contention is totally unfounded. The description of the process of such mixing given by the respondent shows that the mixing is done in exact proportions and the mixture is even tested in a laboratory. This mixture is used for a sp....