TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1980 (10) TMI 191
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....the First Schedule to the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 (Central Act 1 of 1944)." The scope of the exemption provision in the Sales Tax Act is clear. That which is exempt from sales tax is rayon or artificial silk fabrics. What rayon fabric is or artificial silk fabric is must be determined by turning to their definition in the First Schedule to the Central Excises and Salt Act. But when we turn to the Central Excises and Salt Act, we almost draw a blank. Here is how the relevant articles are defined in item 22 of the First Schedule to that Act: "'Rayon or artificial silk fabrics' means all varieties of fabrics manufactured either wholly or partly from rayon or artificial silk and includes embroidery in the piece, in strips or in mot....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....se rayon was then the only kind of artificial silk. But so many other varieties of artificial silk have subsequently been invented and perfected by scientists and technologists. Those varieties have also made their appearance in industry and trade as marketable commodities. Thus, artificial silk is not a mere synonym for rayon. The two are not just interchangeable expressions. Artificial silk must be regarded as a genus of which rayon is the species. The modern appellation for "artificial silk" would seem to be "man-made fibre". Indeed, item 22 of the First Schedule to the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944, as it stands amended now, has abandoned the expression "artificial silk' and has recast item 22 to cover all man-made fibres. The Fede....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....natural silk, the same substance when it becomes a fibre and is used for being made into fabrics, somehow ceases to be artificial silk. We have no doubt that this article must be regarded as artificial silk as defined in item 22 of the First Schedule to the Central Excises and Salt Act. A reference to the details of the excise tariff under item 22 of the First Schedule to the Central Excise Act shows that the duty varies according to the degree of mixture of rayon or artificial silk in the excisable fabric. Under the scheme of the Central Excise Act, the Central Government have also power to exempt excisable goods of any description. In exercise of their powers of exemption, the Central Government exempted high density polyethylene woven f....