TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1998 (8) TMI 548
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....ter referred to as "the assessees", are registered dealers under the Act. According to the present assessees, they purchase timber and convert the same into veneers/plywood and sell the same at concessional rate of tax of 4 per cent provided under section 5-A, on furnishing of form No. 37 by the purchasers declaring that, the same are required by them for the purpose of manufacturing. 2A. Section 5-A provides for taxation of industrial inputs by prescribing a lower rate of tax on sale of goods as industrial inputs at 4 per cent in case the general rate of tax prescribed under section 5 read with the Second Schedule to the Act, is higher than 4 per cent. Explanation (1) to the said section which calls for an interpretation by us, as it....
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.... the Legislature does not suppose our merchants to be naturalists or geologists or botanists". 5.. In Mukesh Kumar's case [1988] 68 STC 324 (SC) the question which had fallen for consideration before their Lordships was, as to what is the true connotation of the word "timber" in common as well as legal parlance. It has been held that, the expression "timber", it seems to us, has an accepted and wellrecognised legal connotation and is nomen juris. It has also a popular meaning as a word of everyday use. In this case, it was held that the two meanings, of "timber" the legal and the popular, coalesce and are broadly subsumed in each other. 6.. In the Chambers 20th Century Dictionary, the meaning of the word "timber" is this: "wood sui....
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....once they are shaped or used in the manufacture of furniture, like chairs or tables, they ceases to be timber and are not called as timber. Similarly, the thin slices or sheets manufactured from out of timber for providing the facing layers is not called as 'timber', but is called as 'veneer'. No one in the trade, when he sees such a thin layer of wood intended as a facing layer, refers to it as 'timber'. It is referred as 'veneer'. Hence it has to be held that 'veneer' is not 'timber' in the ordinary sense." 11.. The said finding of the learned single Judge regarding common parlance meaning and understanding of 'veneer' and 'timber' as distinct commodities has not been questioned by the respondents before us. 12. Despite the a....
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....t be purchased against form 37." 14.. It appears that, because of the confusions created by the said clarifications, the Legislature by Karnataka Act 15 of 1988, after timber, inserted the words "other than veneers" in Explanation 1 to section 5-A to set at rest the controversy on the question involved. 15.. Despite the said fact and the statutory provisions and the amendment thereto, the learned single Judge has held that, the term "timber" cannot be held as including "veneer" till April 1, 1988 when it was explicitly taken out of it by incorporation of the words "other than veneer". For coming to the said conclusion, he has assigned two reasons. According to him, firstly, under entry 45 of the Second Schedule as it stood at the mate....
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....Act. 18.. Apart from the above reasons, section 5-A starts with a non obstante clause with opening words as "notwithstanding anything contained in section 5..........." 19.. Now it is well-settled that non obstante clause appended to a section in the beginning is meant to give an overriding effect over the provisions referred to therein. In this view of the matter as well, the words and expressions used in section 5-A has to be understood with reference to their natural and common parlance meanings and not with reference to any provisions made in section 5. We are further of the opinion that, the amendment to the Explanation by inclusion of the words "other than veneer" was necessitated because of the conflicting clarifications....