TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1986 (1) TMI 365
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....sessments for the years 1975-76, 1976-77 and 1977-78 were completed on best judgment by the Sales Tax Officer and separate orders for these years were issued fixing the taxable turnover and the sales tax due thereon. The Sales Tax Officer later initiated proceedings under section 19 of the Act on the ground that the purchase turnover of raw-bones of the assessee during these years liable to tax under section 5A of the Act had escaped assessment. The assessing officer overruling the contentions of the assessee that the purchase turnover relating to raw-bones is not liable to tax, issued revised orders of assessment for these years. The order of assessment for the year 1978-79 took in also the purchase turnover of raw-bones as liable to tax u....
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....p; shall, whatever be the quantum of the turnover relating to such purchase for a year, pay tax on the taxable turnover relating to such purchase for the year at the rates mentioned in section 5." According to the department the raw-bones purchased by the assessee is consumed in the manufacture of bone-meal for sale in the market and therefore the purchase turnover of raw-bones is liable to tax under section 5A. A Division Bench of this Court in Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax v. Pio Food Packers [1978] 41 STC 364 considering the question whether sliced pine-apple packed in tins is liable to tax under section 5A of the Act stated at page 366: "The relevant clause in the section which has application is section 5A(1)(a) and the con....
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....al criteria for determining whether a commodity is consumed in the manufacture of another. The generally prevalent test is whether the article produced is regarded in the trade, by those who deal in it, as distinct in identity from the commodity involved in its manufacture. Commonly, manufacture is the end-result of one or more processes through which the original commodity is made to pass. The nature and extent of processing may vary from one case to another, and indeed there may be several stages of processing and perhaps a different kind of processing at each stage. With each process suffered, the original commodity experiences a change. But it is only when the change, or a series of changes, take the commodity to the point where commerc....
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....cision given on 9th May, 1980, in Civil Appeal No. 2398 of 1978, Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax v. Pio Food Packers [1980] 46 STC 63 (SC) that the test for determining whether manufacture can be said to have taken place is whether the commodity which is subjected to the process of manufacture can no longer be regarded as the original commodity, but is recognised in the trade as a new and distinct commodity." It is further stated at the same page: "The test that is required to be applied is: does the processing of the original commodity bring into existence a commercially different and distinct commodity?" Applying the aforesaid test it was held that blending of different qualities of iron ore possessing different chemical and phy....
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....hed in the factory it is commercially a different article and the uncrushed salt must be held to have been consumed. The word 'use' is of wider import than 'consumption'. It cannot be denied that the uncrushed salt has been used and by the user a new product, crushed salt has come into existence." 3.. The bone-meal manufactured out of raw-bones has got a different commercial identity as fertiliser even though the process of manufacture involved is only the crushing and powdering the same. Counsel for the assessee relies on the decision of the Madras High Court in State of Tamil Nadu v. Subbaraj [1981] 47 STC 30, wherein it is held that raw-bones cannot be said to have been "consumed in the process of bringing into existence the crushed b....