9911796707
TMI Blog1967 (11) TMI 101X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sment orders made by the Sales Tax Officer, Hathras, for the quarters ending 30th June, 1966, and 30th September, 1966. Messrs Dayabhai Zaver Bhai of Hathras have filed Writ Petition No. 980 of 1967 challenging the assessment order of the Sales Tax Officer, Hathras, for the assessment year 1965-66. In each of the writ petitions the assessment order is challenged only-to the extent of the purchases of arhar dal from dal and oil-seeds manufacturers. The petitioners' contention in each of the above-mentioned writ petitions was that the purchase tax imposed by section 3-D of the U.P. Sales Tax Act is a single point tax and can only be imposed once and not repeatedly in a series of purchases and sales. They alleged that the arhar dal purchased ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... up in this Court is that, although arhar and arhar dal may belong to the same genus, they are different "commercial commodities". The Sales Tax Officer had, when he decided the cases, considered arhar and arhar-ki-dal not only to be separate commercial commodities but also as different products, each of a different genus. He referred to arhar as a "cereal" which was converted into a "pulse" by the process of manufacture. The processes were mentioned as follows by the Sales Tax Officer: "The cereals have to undergo several processes of cleaning, decortication, application of oil and water, grinding etc., before they are converted into pulses." The Sales Tax Officer thought that the arhar bought by the assessee in each case was a first purcha ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t for which the raw oil could not be used. Similarly we consider that hydrogenated oil still continues to be 'groundnut oil' notwithstanding the processing which is merely for the purpose of rendering the oil more stable thus improving its keeping qualities for those who desire to consume groundnut oil." In Kayani and Co. v. Commissioner of Sales Tax[1953] 4 S.T.C. 387., the Hyderabad High Court held that "bread" as an item for sales tax included "all forms or kinds of bread which are prepared by moistening, kneading, baking, frying or roasting meal or flour with or without the addition of yeast, leaven or any other substance for puffing or lightening the article." In Kapildeoram Baijnath Prasad v. J. K. Das and Others[1954] 5 S.T.C. 365., ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ollective term for beans, peas, lentils and other members of the family leguminous " (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Volume 18, page 762,1949 Edition). Our attention was also invited to Professor Albert F. Hill's "Economic Botany", a "Text-book of Useful Plants and Plant Products", to contend that cereals belonged to a family which was different from that of "legumes" under which arhar would fall. We do not think that it is necessary to discuss the differences between cereals and pulses because the department seems to have now realised that arhar-ki-dal can only be a pulse. It cannot be treated as a cereal at any stage. The question, however, remains whether the particular processes through which arhar was put by the manufacturers converted it ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... purchase, in some cases, has been exempt from tax. If the first purchase is free from tax and the commodity is sold again, the second purchase thus affected will not attract tax. That is because the law imposes purchase tax on the first purchase and not upon the second purchase. The Sales Tax Officer must first determine whether arhar and arhar-ki-dal are the same commercial commodities and then apply his mind to and determine the question whether the purchases made by the petitioners are first purchases or second purchases. Sometimes manufacturers themselves grow the produce out of which a commercial commodity is "manufactured". If this is so, in any of the cases before us, there could be no question of a second purchase even if no new com ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
