9911796707
TMI Blog1970 (3) TMI 145X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ands, and as there were no facilities for transport and as there was no market for sugar-cane as such, he had to convert the sugar-cane into jaggery and thereafter realise his agricultural income by sale thereof. The petitioner admits that during the years 1967-68 and 1968-69, he effected sales of jaggery to the tune of Rs. 34,381.28. His case, however, is that as jaggery has been notified as an agricultural produce under section 2 of the Madras Agricultural Produce Markets Act, 1959, and as section 18(1) thereof authorises the levy of a cess by way of sales tax, it follows that there could be no other levy in the nature of sales tax, may it be under the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1959, as well. His objection to the levy under the Madras ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... se, "notwithstanding anything contained in the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1959 (Madras Act 1 of 1959)". This clause, if made operative, the contention has to fail. It follows from the above parenthesis, that notwithstanding the levy under section 3 of the Act, the market committee shall levy a cess by way of sales tax on any notified agricultural produce bought or sold in the notified market area at the prescribed rate. This provision in the Produce Act operates alongside with the charging section in the Act. As the learned Government Pleader rightly contends, this point becomes more clear when we peruse section 6 of the Act which provides that the tax under the Act shall be levied in addition to any tax under any other law for the time ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ied by a judgment of this court, to which the learned Chief Justice was a party. In that case-W.P. No. 1826 of 1969*-the very same contentions were raised and the learned Chief justice negatived both of them. Regarding the contention, the learned Chief justice said: "But, obviously, jaggery by no means can be regarded as an agricultural produce. It is the result of a process, both physical and mechanical, and, without such processing jaggery cannot be produced." Thus, we are unable to agree with the learned counsel for the petitioner in so far as the first two legal contentions are concerned. Regarding the third, which is more factual in scope, there has not been a full enquiry into the matter at all. It is however obvious to us that if ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f in certain activities which enable him to earn that income, it cannot be said that he has engaged himself in a particular business." The Supreme Court in that very case held that the onus of proving that the assessee was carrying on business and was therefore a dealer was on the revenue, and merely because an agricultural produce was converted into another product because of transport and marketing difficulties, it Since reported as K. Subramania Pillai and K. Ramdoss Pillai v. State of Tamil Nadu and Others [1970] 25 S.T.C. 448. does not matter in so far as the question involved, namely, whether the ultimate activity is a sale. In our view, though the product in question is not strictly agricultural produce, the activity of the agricul ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nufacture and sold the jaggery. In those circumstances, the revenue as well as the Appellate Tribunal found, taking into account the organisation behind the sales, including the manufacture, that the assessee satisfied the requirements of the definition of "dealer" in section 2(b) of Act 9 of 1939, which is similar to section 2(g) of the present Act. But it should be noted that the learned judges in Vaidyanatha Iyer v. State of Madras' were persuaded to accept the argument of the revenue that the assessee should be deemed to be a "dealer", because they found that the assessee did not convert sugar-cane into jaggery in the previous years, that in fact he sold sugar-cane as such, and that there was a market for sugar-cane. In the instant case ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
