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TMI Blog1962 (10) TMI 45X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ales Tax Reference No. 455 of 1954 differs from this question only in this respect that it includes boiling pans within its scope. The question arises because under notification issued by the State Government on 7th June, 1948, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 4 of the Act "agricultural implements" have been exempted from the sales tax. The assessees in these references are dealers in cane crushers and boiling pans, and their case is that these articles are agricultural implements within the meaning of the notification and that consequently they are not liable to be taxed on their sale. Cane crushers and boiling pans are used only in the manufacture of gur from sugarcane. Sugarcane is an agricultural produce and the process ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... cultural implement. What amounts to "agricultural income" has been dealt with exhaustively by the Supreme Court in Commissioner of Income-tax, West Bengal, Calcutta v. Raja Benoy Kumar Sahas Roy.[1957] 32 I.T.R. 466. The question that arose before the Supreme Court was whether income from sal and piyasal trees in forest land is agricultural income within the meaning of the Income-tax Act, which exempts it. The learned Judges observed at page 474 that the word "agriculture" is used in the narrow sense of the cultivation of land and in the wide sense of comprising "all activities in relation to the land including horticulture, forestry, breeding and rearing of live-stock, dairying, butter and cheese-making, husbandry etc." It will be noticed ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... when taken in conjunction with the basic operations above described, and it would be futile to urge that they are not agricultural operations at all....." "We are of opinion that the mere performance of these subsequent operations on the products of the land, where such products have not been raised on the land by the performance of the basic operations which we have described above would not be enough to characterise them as agricultural operations. In order to invest them with the character of agricultural operations, these subsequent operations must necessarily be in conjunction with and a continuation of the basic operations which are the effective cause of the products being raised from the land..... The cultivation of the land does ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the seeds, planting, and similar work done on the land itself. This basic conception is the essential sine qua non of any operation performed on the land constituting agricultural operation. If the basic operations are there, the rest of the operations found themselves upon the same. But if these basic operations are wanting the subsequent operations do not acquire the characteristic of agricultural operations." These observations make it quite clear that the agricultural process finished when sugarcane was harvested and brought home, and that preparation of gur from it was no continuation of the agricultural process, howsoever wide a meaning may be given to the word "agriculture". The preparation of gur does not stand on the same footing ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d at all in farming or in producing sugarcane. They are used in producing gur, but as we pointed out earlier gur is not an agricultural produce, and preparing gur is not agriculture. We may also point out that under section 60 of the Code of Civil Procedure all agricultural produce, is not exempt from sale and attachment; only that much of agricultural produce is exempt as is necessary for the purpose of providing until the next harvest for the due cultivation of land and for the support of the agriculturist and his family. If all the sugarcane produced by an agriculturist is not exempt from attachment and sale the Legislature could not have provided for exemption of cane crushers and boiling pans. The sugarcane that was left with an agricu ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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