9911796707
TMI Blog1970 (2) TMI 127X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e also granted to him. Ultimately, the taxable turnover comprised inter alia the following sales: "Sales of leco Rs. 81,578.98". A tax at the rate of 2 per cent. single point was imposed thereon by the taxing authorities and that was sustained by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner on the ground that leco comes under "coke in all its forms" and, therefore, rightly assessable at 2 per cent. single point. The Appellate Assistant Commissioner was of the view that in view of the specific provision in the Pondicherry General Sales Tax Act (6 of 1967), hereinafter referred to as the Act, the commodity known as leco was taxable. He relied upon the text of item 18 of Schedule III to the said Act which granted an exemption from tax to products such ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... eneral Sales Tax Act, 1967, an exemption is granted to commodities named therein as firewood and charcoal. It is, therefore, necessary for the appellant in this tax case to establish factually that leco is not charcoal. The argument advanced is that leco being a by-product in the course of manufacture of lignite and as such manufacture involves experimentation on the earth and extraction of the main chemical from and out of the said process, even the byproduct should, therefore, be geologically understood as one which has been so extracted from the earth, and thus, understood, leco cannot be charcoal. This contention appears to be artificial. In a taxing statute, if a word is used and if that word is a popular one and has a commercial meani ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... term or a term of science or art, be presumed to have used an ordinary term as 'coal' according to the meaning ascribed to it in common parlance. Viewed from that angle, both the merchant dealing in coal and consumer wanting to purchase it would regard coal not in its geological sense but in the sense as ordinarily understood and would include 'charcoal' in the term 'coal'." In the instant case, it is common knowledge that leco, which is an expression which is of recent origin, has never been understood as anything otherwise than. as domestic fuel. The learned Government Pleader concedes that there is no other user of leco otherwise than as combustible material used as charcoal. Such is the popular and the commercial understanding of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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