TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1984 (7) TMI 351
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....ustan Steel Ltd. The Commercial Taxes Department was treating such galvanised sheets and wires as "iron and steel" for sales tax purposes up to 31st December, 1963, and assessing such sales to tax at 2 per cent. The assessing authority started calculating sales tax at 6 per cent on items mentioned above from 1st January, 1964, in pursuance of a departmental clarification issued on the basis of an interpretation given by the Government of India that these items would not come under the definition of "iron and steel" as defined under section 14 of the Central Sales Tax Act and as notified under the Government notification dated 2nd March, 1963. The Commercial Taxes Officer, Special Circle-II, Jaipur, while assessing sales tax for the assessment year 1963-64 held that from 1st January, 1964, onwards sale of G.P. sheets, G.C. sheets and G.I. wires attracted a general rate of sales tax at 6 per cent while prior to 1st January, 1964, sales tax was leviable at 2 per cent. An appeal filed by the assessee was dismissed by the Deputy Commissioner, Commercial Taxes (Appeals), Jaipur. The assessee then filed a revision application before the Board of Revenue. The Board of Revenue agreed with t....
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....by order dated 22nd November, 1973, directed the Board of Revenue to make a statement of the case and refer the aforesaid question for answer of this Court. In these circumstances the above question of law has been referred to this Court. It may be mentioned at the outset that the Board of Revenue itself did not agree with the above view in latter decisions and in view of conflicting judgments, a larger Bench of the Board of Revenue was constituted to decide the above controversy. A larger Bench of the Board of Revenue consisting of three members in Radhaballabh and Sons v. State of Rajasthan reported in 1974 RRD 368 considered the above question and held that galvanised, corrugated sheets fell within the definition of "iron and steel" and that galvanisation and corrugation of the iron sheets or wires did not change their basic character from being iron and steel. The Board of Revenue placed reliance on a decision of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in State of Andhra Pradesh v. Sri Durga Hardware Stores, Vijayawada [1973] 32 STC 322. In the above Andhra Pradesh case it was held as under: "Galvanised plain or corrugated sheets and B.P. sheets fall within the ambit of 'iron and s....
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....ing ingot moulds, bottom plates, iron scrap, cast iron scrap, runner scrap and iron skull scrap; (ii) steel semis (ingots, slabs, blooms and billets of all qualities, shapes and sizes); (iii) skelp bars, tin bars, sheet bars, hoe-bars and sleeper bars; (iv) steel bars (rounds, rods, squares, flats, octagons and hexagons, plain and ribbed or twisted, in coil form as well as straight lengths); (v) steel structurals (angles, joists, channels, tees, sheet piling sections, Z sections or any other rolled sections); (vi) sheets, hoops, strips and skelp, both black and galvanised, hot and cold rolled, plain and corrugated, in all qualities, in straight lengths and in coil form, as rolled and in rivetted condition; (vii) plates both plain and chequered in all qualities; (viii) discs, rings, forgings and steel castings; (ix) tool, alloy and special steels of any of the above categories (x) steel melting scrap in all forms including steel skull, turnings and borings; (xi) steel tubes, both welded and seamless, of all diameters and lengths, including tube fittings; (xii) tin-plates, both hot dipped and electrolytic and tinfree plates; (xiii) fish plate bars,....
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.... obviously to lay down a wide power to legislate. But, in the context of single point sales tax, subject to special conditions when imposed on separate categories of specified goods, the expression was apparently meant to exhaustively enumerate the kinds of goods on a given list. 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. Learned counsel appearing for an intervener argued that the chemical composition of iron and steel affords a clue to the meaning of 'iron and steel' as used in section 14 of the Central Act. We are unable to agree that this could be what Parliament or any legislature would be thinking of when enumerating items to be taxed as commercial goods. The ordinary meaning to be assigned to a taxable item in a list of specified items is that each item so specified is considered as a separately taxable item for purposes of single point taxation in a series of sales unless the contrary is show....
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....tate of Madhya Bharat (Now the State of Madhya Pradesh) v. Hiralal [1966] 17 STC 313 (SC). After the above decision of the Supreme Court in Pyare Lal Malhotra's case [1976] 37 STC 319 (SC) the matter again came up for consideration before a Bench of the Madras High Court. The Madras High Court in Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Tiruchirapalli v. P.C. Mohammed Ibrahim Marakayar Sons [1980] 46 STC 22 held that galvanised plain sheets, referred to as G.P. sheets or C.R. sheets, would not fall within the category of "iron and steel" under entry 4 of the Second Schedule to the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959, as it stood during the assessment year 1968-69 and, therefore, they are taxable at the multi-point rate. It was further held that galvanised plain sheets were previously known as zinc sheets and merely because a different expression has come to be used it does not mean that they retain the character of iron and steel plates. They are actually materials different from steel plates and their use is also different, and commercially they are different goods. It was observed that the decision of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in State of Andhra Pradesh v. Sri Durga Hardwa....
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....1960] 11 STC 827 (SC) the Supreme Court held that "hydrogenated groundnut oil (commonly called vanaspati) is 'groundnut oil' within the meaning of rule 18(2) of the Madras General Sales Tax (Turnover and Assessment) Rules, 1939". The State of Madhya Bharat (Now the State of Madhya Pradesh) v. Hiralal [1966] 17 STC 313 (SC) has already been distinguished by their Lordships of the Supreme Court in State of Tamil Nadu v. Pyare Lal Malhotra [1976] 37 STC 319 (SC). Deputy Commissioner of Agricultural Income-tax and Sales Tax, Quilon v. Travancore Rubber and Tea Co. [1967] 20 STC 520 (SC) is a case of the Supreme Court where the question was whether the assessee was a dealer within the meaning of section 2(b) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956. It was observed that: "Where the only facts that were established were that the assessee converted the latex tapped from its rubber trees into sheets and effected a sale of those sheets to its customers and that the conversion of latex into sheets was a process essential for the transport and marketing of the produce. Held, that the onus of proving that the assessee was carrying on business and was, therefore, a 'dealer' within the meaning o....
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....e above clause has already been extracted above in the earlier part of our judgment while dealing with State of Tamil Nadu v. Pyare Lal Malhotra [1976] 37 STC 319 (SC). The question is whether galvanised and corrugated iron sheets fall within the meaning of "iron and steel" under entry No. 23 of the notification dated 2nd March, 1963, issued under the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, 1954, and section 14 of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956. There is no manner of doubt that after an amendment in 1972 abovementioned sheets have been included in the above clause, but we are concerned with the notification dated 2nd March, 1963, which was in force while dealing with the assessment year 1963-64. The view taken in State of Andhra Pradesh v. Sri Durga Hardware Stores, Vijayawada [1973] 32 STC 322 by the Andhra Pradesh High Court is no longer correct after the decision of their Lordships of the Supreme Court in State of Tamil Nadu v. Pyare Lal Malhotra [1976] 37 STC 319 (SC). The scope and meaning of the words "that is to say" have been enunciated by the Supreme Court and according to which the expression "that is to say" is apparently meant to exhaustively enumerate all kinds of goods on a given l....