TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2017 (6) TMI 411
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....n the manufacture of steel and furniture and other industrial products. 2. The members of the appellant society are artisans, who manufacture products, which are marketed through the appellant society. In this case, the society is aggrieved by an order passed by Joint Commissioner-III, Department of Commercial Taxes, Chennai dated 05.7.2005 in exercise of his suo motu revisional powers under Section 34 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). 3. The facts leading to the filing of this case could be summarized as follows : For the assessment year 1994-95, the appellant reported a total and taxable turnover of Rs. 1,60,11,357/- and NIL respectively. They claimed exemption in terms of G.O.Ms.No.272....
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....e appellant under Section 34 of the Act, calling upon the appellant to show cause as to why the order passed by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner should not be set aside and the order passed by the Assessing Officer be restored. The reason assigned in the show cause notice was that G.O.Ms.No.3131 Revenue Department dated 26.10.1963 was relied upon by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner wherein the Government granted exemption for Madras State Khadi and Village Industries Board and the units attached to it in respect of their sales of all goods produced by the Board and its units and that the appellant assessee had purchased finished goods and sold, which were not considered by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner and there is a vi....
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....ecord. 9. As noticed above, the Assessing Officer had determined the total and taxable turnover and levied penalty under Section 12(3)(b) of the Act. Before we proceed to consider the question as to whether the appellant was entitled for the benefit of exemption, we first propose to consider as to whether the Assessing Officer was justified in levying penalty. 10. Admittedly, the entire turnover has been culled out from the books of accounts. If such is the situation, the settled legal position is that no penalty can be levied under Section 12(3)(b) of the Act. The Appellate Assistant Commissioner was right in vacating the levy of penalty on the ground that the entire turnover was culled out from the books of accounts produced by the appe....
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.... the powers conferred on him under Section 89(1)(i) of the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Societies Act, 1983 and he is the ex officio Registrar of the Khadi Board Cooperative Societies. It was further stated that the appellant society is a unit of the Tamil Nadu Khadi and Village Industries Board and in terms of By-law No.D, the society is authorized to purchase finished goods from the members of the society and sell, so that the members are benefited. With the above opinion, the Joint Commissioner was requested to drop further proceedings on the show cause notice. 14. The appellant, in their reply, placed heavy reliance on the observations made by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner while allowing the appeal and reversing the order passed by th....
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.... defines 'village industries' to mean all or any of the industries specified in the schedule and includes any other industry deemed to be specified in the schedule by reason of a Notification issued under Section 3 of the said Act. The schedule so notified lists out the various village industries and one among them is blacksmithy. Section 17 of the Act provides for exemption of a class or category of industries or products. The Notification issued under Section 17 exempts sale of all products of village industries, which would mean that products made of iron, which is essentially a blacksmithy item, would also be entitled for the benefit of exemption. If such is the exemption Notification, which does not qualify the product to cover....
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....e for the benefit of its members. This aspect of the matter was not considered by the Joint Commissioner while passing the impugned order. There was no material available with the Joint Commissioner to come to a conclusion that the product supplied by the appellant society to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board would not fall under the category 'blacksmithy items'. The organization namely the Khadi and Village Industries Board is the best person to certify on this aspect, which had, in no uncertain terms, certified that the product is a blacksmithy item. Therefore, merely because the product supplied by the society, which is being utilized by the Electricity Board for the purpose of supporting high voltage electrical cables, cannot mak....