1982 (11) TMI 165

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.... whether the sheet cuttings and plate cuttings are out of steel plates or iron plates. But the assessee's contention before the assessing authority was that in either case they were not liable for multi-point sales tax. It was urged that the assessee had sold the iron and steel plates in the same form in which they were directly produced by the rolling mill. The assessing authority, however, did not accept these contentions. The assessing authority held that the goods sold by the assessee were taxable at multi-point. The crucial findings of the assessing authority are as under: "Their contention that the goods are sold in the same form in which they are purchased in the rolling mills is not acceptable. They have also not proved their cont....

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....es, but they still retained the same form in which they were directly produced by the rolling mills. It was urged that the mere act of cutting the products from the rolling mills into smaller pieces cannot change either the identity of the goods or their nature as the same commercial product. We are disposed to accept this submission of the assessee as well-founded. As a matter of construction, we must give a natural meaning and not a strained meaning to the words "sold in the same form in which they are directly produced by the rolling mill", which qualify both the sub-items "iron plates" and "steel plates" occurring in entry 4 of the Second Schedule. We must also construe the expression consistent with the scheme of single point taxation....

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.... Second Schedule following the approach of the Supreme Court, which, with respect, we regard as one of substance. Even if we address ourselves strictly to the qualifying words of entry 4 in the Second Schedule, namely, "the same form in which they are directly produced by the rolling mill", we arrive at the same result. In our opinion, cutting iron plates and steel plates into smaller sizes may involve a change in the size, but not change in the form. Even on a strict adherence to the language of entry, therefore, we must differ from the views expressed by the assessing authority and the Board of Revenue. The learned Government Pleader cited before us a decision of the Orissa High Court in Alguram Harinarayan Ram v. Assistant Commissioner ....

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....nd shavings in the manufacturing must of a dealer can be said to retain the same form in which the goods came out of the steel rolling mills, within the meaning of entry 4(c) of the Second Schedule to the Act. While holding that the scrap in its very nature being the bye-product or industrial waste of a steel goods manufacturing unit was a different commercial commodity and cannot be said to retain the same form in which iron and steel articles have come out of the rolling mills, the learned Judges, however, took care to point out, in the passage we have earlier quoted that the mere process of cutting the iron and steel goods may not make for a change in the identity of the goods or the form in which those goods were produced by the rolling....