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TMI Blog1968 (6) TMI 51X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... -assessees are manufacturers of agricultural implements and parts for bullock-carts. For the purpose of manufacturing agricultural implements and parts for bullock-carts, the opponents purchased babul wood. The said purchase consisted of the trunk, twigs and parts of the tree, all loaded in a cart and this cart-load is known as hel. The wood purchased by the opponents was mostly and substantially used in the manufacture of agricultural implements and the residue was sold as firewood. On these facts the Sales Tax Officer assessed the opponents and the Assistant Commissioner dismissed their appeal on the ground that the babul wood was mainly and substantially used for the manufacture of agricultural implements and it was, therefore, "timber" ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r betel leaves were covered under the head of vegetables. At page 288 their Lordships followed the ratio in Planters Nut and Chocolate Co. Ltd. v. The King[1952] 1 Dom. L.R. 385 at p. 389, and held that when the term is not defined in the Act and it is a word of everyday use it must be construed in its popular sense meaning "that sense which people conversant with the subject-matter with which the statute was dealing would attribute to it". It is to be construed as understood in common language. Their Lordships, therefore, held that the term "vegetables" must be construed not in any technical sense nor from the botanical point of view, but as understood in common parlance, i.e., denoting a class of vegetables which were grown in a kitchen g ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ude "charcoal" in the term "coal". It was only when the question of the kind or variety of coal would arise that a distinction would be made between coal and charcoal; otherwise both of them would, in ordinary parlance, as also in their commercial sense, be spoken of as coal. The expression "coal" was, therefore, interpreted to include "charcoal" and was held taxable at the rate of 2 per cent under the said Act under the said entry. In view of this settled legal position we must interpret these two relevant terms in the commercial sense and see as to how they would be understood in the commercial community when these goods would be purchased or sold. There is no dispute in the present case that the goods purchased by the assessee consiste ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... commodity so far as the present Act is concerned as it is reduced from timber to firewood. These two commercial commodities which are sold under two different marketable names have totally different connotations. When timber is reduced to firewood it has to be burnt as it is used for fuel. Thus, the wood content gets destroyed when it is used as firewood. On the other hand, when that wood is used as timber as building material or for preparing other agricultural implements, wood would have to be preserved. Mr. Mody vehemently argued that the relevant exemption is attracted to the commodity as such. It is, therefore, wholly immaterial as to what use is made or what is the intention of the purchaser. In fact, the seller would be under no ob ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... amount to double taxation. The learned Judge in terms held that the manufacturing process meant the process to bring into being a commercial article for sale in the business in which the dealer was engaged, i.e., an article which by itself had a commercial value and which could be the subject-matter of sale for a price in the course of the business of selling or supplying in which the dealer was engaged and, therefore, there was no reason to exclude the chopping of timber into firewood from the ambit of manufacturing process. It is, therefore, clear that unless this manufacturing process was resorted to and the timber which consisted of the fallen tree was treated by this process to convert it into a different marketable commodity, i.e., f ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ase or sale has taken place. If for all substantial purposes the marketable commodity was timber, other than firewood, it would fall clearly under entry 32, while if the commercial commodity was firewood then only it would get exemption. In the facts of the present case, as the entire tree which had fallen was sold as a cart-load to the assessee who had purchased this cart-load of the fallen tree and as the commodity had not undergone the manufacturing process of chopping, which would reduce it to firewood by converting it into another commercial commodity, it cannot be held that the assessee purchased firewood. The Tribunal was, therefore, in error in holding that the assessee had purchased firewood, as the purchase was clearly of timber i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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