1994 (10) TMI 285

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....sputing the assessment of turnover of Rs. 3,94,769 and additional sales tax. The assessing authority has revoked the original order by holding that the deduction allowed at the stage of original assessment was not correct. The Appellate Assistant Commissioner has sustained the assessment on a turnover of Rs. 2,89,425 allowing deduction on the turnover of Rs. 1,05,344 as second sales of timber. Admittedly, the disputed turnover of Rs. 2,89,425 is related to sales of firewood and karuvel trees cut from the fuel coupe taken from the Forest Department. The Appellate Assistant Commissioner disallowed exemption relying upon the decision of this Court in Malayalee Stores v. State of Tamil Nadu [1983] 52 STC 3. On considering the submissions made b....

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....ate Assistant Commissioner in revising the assessment. 3.. On the other hand, learned Additional Government Pleader (Taxes) submitted that the karuvel trees sold by the assessee were used by Seshasayee Paper Mills for the purpose of producing pulp. Therefore, the bits of karuvel trees sold cannot be considered as firewood. Learned Additional Government Pleader submitted that apart from the bills and the delivery note issued by the Seshasayee Paper Mills the assessee has not produced any tangible materials to show that what was sold to Seshasayee Paper Mills was only firewood. According to the learned Additional Government Pleader, since Seshasayee Paper Mills used the alleged firewood sold by the assessee as pulp producing product, what wa....

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....annot be called as firewood. In order to support his contention, learned counsel for the assessee produced bills and the delivery note issued by the Seshasayee Paper Mills. These documents would go to show that what was sold by the assessee to the Seshasayee Paper Mills was firewood. The department contended that since Seshasayee Paper Mills used karuvel trees as pulp producing product, it cannot be considered as firewood. 6.. Reliance was placed on the decision in Lakshmi v. State of Tamil Nadu [1983] 52 STC 5 (Mad.). According to the facts in that case, the assessee, sold timber described in the sale agreement as "blue-gum and wattle pulpwood" or "debarked and split eucalyptus blue-gum" for use in the manufacture of rayon or other kinds ....

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....urt while considering section 3-A of the Uttar Pradesh Sales Tax Act held that firewood as commonly understood includes all wood which are used primarily for purposes of fuel. Small pieces of waste wood of different types of trees, called as kokat in the local area, which are one metre in length and are very small in diameter and normally used only as fuel wood, would fall within the ambit of the word "firewood" as used in the notification issued under the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948. The fact that karuvel trees sold to paper mills which were used by them as raw material for manufacturing paper would not destroy their character as firewood. It is a common user of an article and not its use that determines the character in which the very commod....