TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2001 (4) TMI 894
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....by the Joint Commissioner of Commercial Taxes (Appeals), Mangalore, dated December 23, 1996. The point in issue revolves around the question as to whether various items sold by the appellants which according to them come under the approved category of products manufactured and sold by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, would be exempt from sales tax or not. The original assessing authority by order dated August 25, 1995 rejected the contention put forward by the appellants that they would qualify for such exemption and it was against this order that the appellants filed an appeal. The appellate authority through a detailed speaking order upheld the plea principally on the basis of a circular dated July 6, 1992 wherein the State Go....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....y here that the appellate authority was required to make this distinction because the appellants were doing business in certain products which would go outside the ambit of this class of products. It is against this order that the revisional authority issued a show cause notice to the appellants and after hearing them reversed the appellate order. The line of reasoning adopted by the revisional authority proceeds on the footing that the relevant circular issued by the State Government prescribing the exemption referred to the dual aspects of manufacture and sale and the revisional authority essentially disqualified the appellants from exemption on the ground that in his view unless the assessee was also concerned with the manufacturing proc....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....sion did meet with considerable favour since we did find that it would be arbitrary and unreasonable on the part of the court to specifically read something into the circulars which was not specifically and unequivocally stated in the form of prohibition or restriction. We have carefully read and re-read the circulars most of which, as is typical with Government documents are not only ambiguous but are not very happily worded but we have been able to glean from them that the concession attaches to this class and category of products because it is the intention of the Government to boost the manufacture of these products in rural areas and to give a special impetus to the sale of these products principally in the urban areas. This being the ....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....location of the outlets. As against this contention, the learned Government Advocate sought to defend the order by contending that the manufacture and sale are two continuous aspects and that one cannot be delinked from the other and it was his submission that these words have been used in the figurative sense in order to ensure that the exemption is not claimed by outsiders who would not be otherwise entitled to it as much as the institutions who may have nothing to do with the Khadi and Village Industries Commission but who are doing business in these same products. On a very clear study of the circulars that have been relied on by the revisional authority but more importantly, on an overall appraisal of the totality of the provisions ....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....nd that there is a blanket exemption that would be available to all such goods or products manufactured by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission and sold not only by them but even their authorised representatives as much as the petitioners. This exemption is clear and unambiguous and consequently, despite the fact that learned Government Advocate has vehemently submitted that it would be restricted only to the Commission and its own outlets we find that the Legislature has extended the benefit to authorised dealers and stockists such as the petitioner. Furthermore, on a careful study of the entries in question we find that the benefit really attaches itself to the products, viz., those of the items that are manufactured and sold by....