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TMI Blog1975 (5) TMI 75X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d not on the seller. This is what makes the authorities on which counsel for the appellants relied inapplicable to the cases before us. Under section 21-A the tax payable is on the price of the liquor and that tax is to be paid by the purchaser; the seller is required to collect the tax from the purchaser which he has to pay over to the Government. Section 21-A makes the seller a collector of tax for the Government, and the amount collected by him as tax under this section cannot therefore be a part of his turnover. Under the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1959, the dealer has no statutory duty to collect the sales tax payable by him from his customer, and when the dealer passes on to the customer the amount of tax which the former is liable ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... h Court's decision is questioned by the sales tax authorities. The appeals have three different assessees as respondents and relate to different assessment years concerning each assessee, ranging from 1959-60 to 1964-65. The assessees are dealers in foreign liquor, among other goods. They have been assessed to sales tax as dealers on sales or purchases of other goods under section 3(1) of the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1959. Section 3(1) is the charging section providing generally that a dealer whose total turnover for a year is not less than the specified amount, shall pay a tax for each year at the specified rate. "Turnover" is defined in section 2(r) of the Act. The relevant part of the definition is as follows: "'Turnover' means t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , 1959. In George Oakes (P.) Ltd. v. State of Madras [1961] 12 S.T.C. 476 (S.C.); [1962] 2 S.C.R. 570., this court considered the question whether inclusion of the amounts collected by the appellants in that case as sales tax under the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1939, was valid. The expression "turnover" in the 1939 Act meant, as it does in the 1959 Act, aggregate amount for which goods are bought or sold, whether for cash or for deferred payment or other valuable consideration. This court observed: "...........when a sale attracts purchase tax and the tax is passed on to the consumer, what the buyer has to pay for the goods includes the tax as well and the aggregate amount so paid would fall within the definition of turnover........... ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... by him to the Government. If he does so, he cannot be said to be collecting the tax payable by him from his buyers. The levy and collection of tax is regulated by law and not by contract. So long as there is no law empowering the dealer to collect tax from his buyer or seller, there is no legal basis for saying that the dealer is entitled to collect the tax payable by him from his buyer or seller. Whatever collection that may be made by the dealer from his customers the same can only be considered as valuable consideration for the goods sold". It is clear from section 21-A of the Madras Prohibition Act, 1937, that the sales tax which the section requires the seller of foreign liquor to collect from the purchaser is a tax on the purchaser a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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