TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1978 (11) TMI 144
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.... machinery used for polishing diamonds. The part of the machinery in which the aforesaid goods or articles are used is known as "angur" or "eyelet". The assessee sold certain quantity of the aforesaid goods or articles to two different parties under two separate bills each dated 21st September, 1972. On 23rd September, 1972, the assessee made an application to the Commissioner of Sales Tax to determine the rate of tax on the sales of goods or articles under the aforesaid two bills. Along with the said application the assessee enclosed the two bills in question. The application was heard by the Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax. It was the case of the assessee before the Deputy Commissioner that the goods or articles were covered by entry 36 of the Government notification dated 29th April, 1970, issued under section 49 read with entry 16(1) of Schedule II-Part A of the Act inasmuch as they were spare parts or accessories of machinery used in the polishing of diamonds. Alternatively, the contention of the assessee was that the goods or articles were covered by entry 27 of Schedule II-Part A since they were wire rods manufactured out of copper, which is a non-ferrous metal, and that as....
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....n the sales thereof?" As earlier pointed out, neither the Deputy Commissioner nor the Tribunal has considered the question of fact whether or not the articles or goods in question are wire rods. For the purposes of determination of the contention raised by the assessee, it was indeed necessary for those authorities-to have decided the said question. In view of their failure to do so, we would not be able to answer the aforesaid questions straightway and different procedure will have to be adopted, as would be evident from the concluding portion of this judgment. We shall, so far as the present reference is concerned, only consider the question whether, on a true and correct interpretation of entry 27, wire rods would be comprehended within the meaning of the word "rods" appearing therein. It would be convenient at this stage to set out the relevant entries. Entry 27 of Schedule II-Part A reads as under: "Sheets, rods, bars, slabs, blocks, ingots, circles and Five Five scrap of non-ferrous metals and alloys. paise paise in the in the rupee. rupee." Entry 13 of Schedule III reads as follows: "All goods other than those specified from time to Six Three time in....
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....on-ferrous metals and alloys and that even items like bars and rods, which are broadly similar with little difference as to the size, are separately mentioned and that, under such circumstances, in the absence of specific reference to wire rods, it would not be legitimate to hold that the term "rods" includes wire rods and, secondly, that wire rod, being a distinct commercial commodity, is a separate taxable article or entity for the purposes of sales tax and that, as such, the said article is not comprehended within the meaning of the word "rods". According to the revenue, wire rods are covered by the residuary entry 13 of Schedule III. For the reasons which follow, we are unable to uphold these contentions. It is true that entry 27 specifically mentions various articles or goods manufactured out of non-ferrous metals and alloys which are covered by it and that articles broadly similar such as bars and rods are separately enumerated therein. However, as stated earlier, entry 27 covers a very wide field. The word "rods" is used therein in a generic sense and every conceivable type of rod would, therefore, be covered by the said entry. It would be against the legislative inten....
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....ce reliance: "The purpose of an enumeration in a statute dealing with sales tax at a single point in a series of sales would, very naturally, be to indicate the types of goods each of which would constitute a separate class for a series of sales. Otherwise, the listing itself loses all meaning and would be without any purpose behind it." The extracted observation has to be read in the context of the legislative history and the mould in which the relevant entry therein considered was cast in the scheme of the statute. Those observations cannot be lifted and applied straightway in the context of entry 27 with which we are concerned and which has to be interpreted against its own background and in its own context and collocation. The conclusion is, therefore, inevitable that the word "rods" in entry 27 must be taken to include all the different varieties of rods including wire rods. If, therefore, the goods or articles in which the assessee deals are, in fact, wire rods, they must be taken to be covered by entry 27. In that view of the matter, entry 13 cannot be attracted. As earlier pointed out, the difficulty which, however, arises in the present case is that neither ....