1995 (10) TMI 211

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....d fall under item 114 of the First Schedule taxable at 10 per cent. Accordingly, the assessing officer levied tax at 10 per cent on a turnover of Rs. 2,60,947. Aggrieved, the assessee filed an appeal before the Appellate Assistant Commissioner. The assessee contended that the commodities cannot be brought under plywood or block board, etc. They are not building boards. They are fillers used in the manufacturing of this article and their uses do not justify the commodities to be classified under item 114. Therefore, according to the assessee, the commodity should be taxed at 4 per cent multi-point. The assessee further submitted that the goods purchased are soaked in bitumen and kerosene and sold for filling up gaps in buildings, etc. Thi....

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....have any load bearing capacity and are used as fillers on the canals, bridges, runways, roads, etc. The expansion joint fillers manufactured using bitumen and fibre are taxable at 4 per cent general multi-point rate. The Tribunal should have considered and applied the departmental circular for clarification and practice. The expression "or the like" in item 114 of the First Schedule qualifies the immediately preceding expression or other organic binding substances in sheets, blocks, boards and cannot be regarded as applicable to the entirety of the enumeration of goods in entry 114 of the First Schedule. The article resold by the assessee whether would come under item 114 of the First Schedule is highly debatable. Therefore the benefit o....

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....issions. It remains to be seen that the assessee sold expansion joint boards made up of wood pulp as boards with various sizes of thickness and dimensions by using resins, chemicals and molasses. The point for consideration is whether the expansion joint boards sold by the assessee would fall under item 114 of the First Schedule to the TNGST Act, liable to tax at 10 per cent single point. 5.. Item 114 of the First Schedule reads as under: "Plywood, block board, lamin board, batten board, hard or soft wall boards or insulating board and veneered panels whether or not containing any material other than wood, cellular wood panels, building boards of wood pulp or of vegetable fibre, whether or not bonded with natural or artificial or reco....

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....the Commercial Tax Officer after receiving the reply to notice and examining the sample of the raw material are extracted below:   "I learn on enquiry that the Bombay seller made this board only out of bagasse and this dealer soaked the board in tar solution. Clearly this board has been made out of vegetable fibre of cane. (I can even say it is wood) and conforms in all forms to the category of goods contemplated under item 114 of the First Schedule to the TNGST Act." Counsel for the assessee submitted that the raw materials which were dipped in the bitumen solution are not hard and do not have any load bearing capacity as in the case of hard boards which are used for making furniture, partitions, etc. The soft materials purchase....