TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1988 (8) TMI 403
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....ssioner of Sales Tax, M.P.), M.C.C. No. 289 of 1986 (M.P. Electric Corporation, Ratlam v. Commissioner of Sales Tax, M.P.), M.C.C. No. 291 of 1986 (M.P. Electric Corporation, Ratlam v. Commissioner of Sales Tax, M.P.), M.C.C. No. 293 of 1986 (M.P. Electric Corporation, Ratlam v. Commissioner of Sales Tax, M.P.) and M.C.C. No. 290 of 1986 (M.P. Electric Corporation, Ratlam v. Commissioner of Sales Tax, M.P.). 2.. These are nine references made by the Board of Revenue (Sales Tax Tribunal) at the instance of the assessee under section 44(1) of the Madhya Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1958 arising out of the assessments made under the Madhya Pradesh General Sales Tax Act and the Central Sales Tax Act for the assessment years 1976-77 to 1979-8....
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....ed. 4.. In the first appeal, the Appellate Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax, Ujjain, affirmed the decision of the assessing authority observing that the tape is produced by the assessee by immersing the cloth in a mixture of varnish and oil and the tape so produced is entirely different from the ordinary cloth tape, and it is used in connection with the machinery and electrical goods. 5.. In the second appeal, before the Tribunal, the assessee contended that mere process of immersion of the tape in the varnish and oil does not change the nature of goods. It was also contended that the tape sold by the assessee does not come up to the specifications of insulating tape. It was also stated that the Central Excise Department is treating the a....
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....d by the assessee. The learned Tribunal, after hearing the parties, has referred the two questions of law as stated at the outset. 8.. The learned counsel for the assessee has submitted that the tape in question is a strip of cloth used for the purpose of binding or wrapping and merely because it has been immersed in linseed oil and varnish, it does not lose its identity as a tape within the meaning of the exempted article "tape" under the aforesaid notification issued under section 12 of the Act. The process of immersing the cotton cloth tape does not result into a different commercial commodity. Learned counsel has placed reliance on a decision of the Supreme Court in State of Orissa v. Titaghur Paper Mills Co. Ltd. [1985] 60 STC 213 at ....
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....gh there was no essential difference between the raw shrimps, prawns and lobsters and processed or frozen shrimps, prawns and lobsters and they were regarded as commercially the same commodity. In the instant case, the State Legislature has not excluded from exemption a cloth tape which is subjected to process of immersion in a solution of linseed oil and varnish. 9.. Learned counsel for the assessee has also relied on the wellsettled principle of construction of words and expressions describing an article or commodity in a sales tax enactment, to the effect that the words or expressions must be construed in the sense in which they are understood in the trade, by the dealer and the consumer. The reason is that it is they who are concerned ....