TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2008 (9) TMI 904
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....t, 1994 (hereinafter referred to as, "the Act"). Before coming to the controversy and case laws, it is considered expedient to reproduce the provisions of the Act and exemption notification and rate notification in question for ready reference: "13A. Levy of turnover tax.-(1) Every registered dealer and every dealer who is liable to get himself registered under section 3, and whose total turnover in a year exceeds three lacs rupees, whether or not the whole or any portion of such turnover is liable to tax under any other provisions of this Act, shall be liable to pay turnover tax, from such date and at such rate as may be notified by the State Government but not exceeding ten per cent of his gross annual turnover. (2) No tax under sub-section (1) shall be payable on that part of turnover which relates to,- (i) sale or purchase of exempted goods; (ii) sale or purchase of goods in the course of inter-State trade or commerce; (iii) sale or purchase of goods in the course of export out of the territory of India or sale or purchase in the course of import into the territory of India; (iv) all amounts collected by way of tax under the provisions of this Act or the Central Sales Ta....
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....rcise of the powers conferred by section 15 of the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, 1994 (Rajasthan Act No. 22 of 1995), the State Government being of the opinion that it is expedient in the public interest so to do, hereby exempts from tax sale or purchase of all kinds of man-made fibers and man-made yarn whether synthetic or nonsynthetic, cellulosic or non-cellulosic, blended or not and waste thereof, worsted and semi-worsted woollen yarn including carpet woollen yarn, embroidery yarn, cotton yarn and cotton yarn waste, to the extent to which the rate of tax in respect thereof exceeds two per cent, on the following conditions, namely: 1.. that these commodities are used as raw material for manufacture of fabrics in the State; and 2.. that such manufacturer shall issue to the selling dealer a certificate in the Form appended to this notification. CERTIFICATE I,............(Name)............(Status) authorised to make purchase on behalf of M/s............(Name and address of the purchasing dealer), do hereby certify that the............(description of goods) purchased from M/s.............(complete address of the seller), holder of R.C. No....................(RST)...................
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.... v. State of West Bengal [1998] 111 STC 420 upholding the decision of the West Bengal Taxation Tribunal in Kejriwal Electronics Private Limited & Co. v. Commercial Tax Officer [1991] 81 STC 20 and overruling the decision of single judge of Calcutta High Court in the case of ABN Food & Beverage Pvt. Ltd. v. Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes [1990] 77 STC 339 was distinguishable from the facts of the present case since exemption provisions contained under section 4AA in the West Bengal Act referred to only section 4 for exemption whereas section 15 of the Rajasthan Act without reference to any specific provisions for levy of tax, empowered the State Government to exempt fully or partially the assessee from payment of tax on the sale or purchase of any goods, and, therefore, the exemption in the present case under the notification dated September 17, 2001 exempted the assessee from turnover tax also. (g) That relying on the decisions of the honourable Supreme Court in Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilizers Limited v. Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes [1991] 83 STC 234 and Union of India v. Wood Papers Ltd. [1991] 83 STC 251, the learned counsel for the petitionerassessee ur....
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....y of tax on sale or purchase on each transaction is different from levy of turnover tax on the gross annual turnover exceeding a particular limit of turnover and these two being different concepts, cannot be mixed up and, therefore, the revenue authorities have rightly held the assessee not entitled to the exemption from turnover tax under the notification dated September 17, 2001. (c) The word 'on' is absent before the words 'sale or purchase of all kinds of man-made fibers and man-made yarn' in the notification dated September 17, 2001 and, therefore, the turnover tax which is levied on gross sale value or turnover of the assessee during a particular year cannot be covered by the said exemption notification and the said notification clearly exempts only individual transaction of sale or purchase from tax exceeding two per cent rate subject to condition of the certificate of the commodity being used as raw material for manufacture of fabrics in the State, whereas the turnover tax is on the basis of gross annual turnover as determined under section 13A of the Act on which the turnover tax at the rate of 0.25 per cent was leviable if the turnover exceeded Rs. 50 lac....
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....to fulfilment of conditions specified in the said notification itself. The said notification issued under section 15 of the Act, which is the only source of power available with the State Government to grant exemption, does not refer to tax leviable under section 13A of the Act. As rightly contended by the learned counsel for the Revenue there is no intendment about tax, there is no equity about tax. On a plain reading of the notification as per golden rule of the interpretation, i.e., to go by the plain language of the text of the notification, one can only come to the conclusion that the said notification dated September 17, 2001 operates in a different field, whereas the levy of turnover tax under section 13A operates in another field. If the State Government wanted to exempt turnover tax under section 13A also, nothing prevented the State Government from issuing such separate notification or to mention it specifically in the same notification also. The exemption under notification dated September 17, 2001 is available with reference to individual transaction of sale or purchase only, is further fortified by the certificate appended in the said notification as a condition for gr....
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....ioner v Arihant Industries [2002] 127 STC 419 (Raj) is also of no avail to the petitioner-assessee. The learned single judge in that case held that the words used in the notification "exempts from tax" on a plain reading of the notification indicated that the women entrepreneurs in tiny sectors have been exempted from the payment of tax under the Act. The word "tax" has been defined under section 2(r) which means tax leviable under the provisions of the Act. Sales tax is leviable under section 4 and purchase tax is leviable under section 11 of the Act and thus, the exemption notification refers to all taxes leviable under the Act which includes sales tax as well as purchase tax. The said judgment did not touch upon the controversy in hand at all. As already observed the turnover tax leviable under section 13A is not the same as sales tax or purchase tax leviable on the individual transaction of sale or purchase. It is a levy on the basis of gross turnover of the assessee exceeding a particular limit and treating the class of dealers, who have turnover over that particular limit as a different class, the Legislature has imposed turnover tax under section 13A of the Act. The constitu....