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TMI Blog1977 (1) TMI 64X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ate 9% and not 5% on the ground that they were electrical goods. 2. Aggrieved against the order of Shri Kidwai the present appeals have been filed by the dealer. It is urged that the learned Asstt. Commissioner was not justified in taking suo-motu proceedings and revising the assessment orders as according to the dealer change of opinion was not a good ground for revising the order. It was reiterated that the battery chargers are liable to be taxed at the rate of 5% and not 9% and that in the past also the said item was taxed at 5%. It was canvassed that the battery chargers were not electrical goods. 3. The first point for consideration is whether the learned Asstt. Commissioner was competent to revise the assessment order under s. 2 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t this is done under the provisions of the Act and not by carrying out in a capricious or arbitrary manner. Therefore, a revisional authority has to be created. What is revision? The essence of revisional jurisdiction lies in the duty of the superior tribunal or officer entrusted with such jurisdiction to see that the subordinate tribunals or officers keep themselves within the bounds prescribed by law and that they do what their duty requires them to do and that they do it in a legal manner. This jurisdiction being one of superintendence and correction in appropriate cases, it is exercisable even suo-moto as is clear from the numerous statutory provisions relating to revision found in various Acts and Regulations such as the Civil Procedur ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rned Asstt. Commissioner, Shri A.R. Kidwai, in my opinion, was compent to revise the orders in question. 8. The next question to be determined in these appeals is whether the battery chargers should be taxed at 9% or 5%. The answer would depend on the fact whether the battery chargers are electrical goods or not. The rate of tax has been provided under s. 5 of the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941. It is not disputed that the tax payable by the dealer in the case of the taxable turnover out in respect of electrical goods as specified at item No. 18 of the 1st Schedule is 9%. That item reads:— "Electrical goods other than electrical plant, equipment and their accessories including service meters required for generation, transmission ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... lways, and it was held that it was rather difficult to hold that a lathe by itself, even though driven by electrical energy will come within the scope of the expression "electrical goods". 14. In Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Madurai vs. Ravi Auto Stores(7) it was held that the welding electrodes are not by themselves electrical goods. It was contended for the revenue that since welding electrodes cannot be used except with the application of electrical energy, they should be regarded as electrical goods. The High Court was of the view that argument laid too much stress on the user of the article with electrical energy. It was observed that it was not the only test. Before applying that test, the goods must be capable of class ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ......, the test that would be applied is what would be the meaning which persons dealing with coal and consumers purchasing it as fuel would give to that word. A sales tax statute being one levying a tax on goods, must, in the absence of a technical terms or a term of science or art, be presumed to have used an ordinary term as coal according to the meaning ascribed to it in common parlance." At another place, their Lordships observed: "While interpreting items in statutes like the Sales Tax Acts, report should be had not to the scientific or the technical meaning of such terms out to their popular meaning or the meaning attached to them by those dealing in them that is to say, to their commercial sense." 17. Applying that test it ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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