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TMI Blog1973 (2) TMI 123X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... al Sales Tax Act, 1963 (Act 15 of 1963), the Government of Kerala, having considered it necessary in the public interest so to do, hereby reduce the rate of tax payable by an oil-miller under the said Act in respect of his sales of groundnut oil and its cake from 3 per cent. to one per cent. subject to the condition that the turnover of groundnut, from which the said oil and cake are produced by him in his mill within the State, is assessed to tax or is liable to tax at his hands." The appellants claim to be oil-millers who purchase groundnut from outside Kerala State, for instance, from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, and bring it into Kerala, crush it and produce groundnut oil. The notification gives a reduction in respect of the sales o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ala General Sales Tax Act of 1963, there will not be any repugnancy. The word "tax" is defined in section 2(xxiv) to mean the tax payable under the Act. With this in mind, if the expression "assessed to tax or is liable to tax at his handsis considered, it emerges clearlywithout any shadow of doubt-that the assessment to tax contemplated is an assessment to tax under the Act and the liability to tax contemplated is a liability to tax under the Act. It must necessarily follow that the assessment to tax or the liability to tax cannot be under any Sales Tax Act other than the Kerala General Sales Tax Act of 1963. The attempt of the counsel of the appellants is to contrast this notification with another notification issued under section 8(5) of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... that was why it was deliberately put in there. Thus, a comparison of the impugned notification with S.R.O. No. 212/67 is not helpful to the appellants; if at all, it may only be against them. The next attempt of the counsel of the appellants has been to draw our attention to two other notifications relating to coconut oil. (We may point out that all the cases before us relate to groundnut oil.) The first notification, S.R.O. No. 702/63, was issued in 1963 under the same section 10 of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act; and that notification concluded with the expression "subject to the condition that the turnover of such sale is assessed to tax or is liable to tax under the said Act in that year". Later, in 1966, another notification, S.R.O ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a comparison of these two notifications with the impugned notification cannot also help the appellants. The counsel of the appellants have then argued that a taxing statute should be interpreted in a strict manner; in other words, in the case of ambiguity, the interpretation of a taxing statute should be in favour of the assessee. Firstly, that question can arise only if there is an ambiguity and two interpretations are possible; we have already indicated that the impugned notification does not give rise to any ambiguity. Secondly, this principle applies only in interpreting a taxing statute; it does not apply to a case where an assessee is claiming exemption from tax. Therefore, this contention is also of no avail. Mr. C.K. Viswanatha Iy ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ede the free movement or transport of goods." Mathew, J., has considered several other decisions as well; and the learned judge has observed, relying on the decisions of the Supreme Court, that it would be reasonable and proper to hold that the restrictions upon freedom which are prohibited by article 301 are such restrictions as directly and immediately restrict the free flow or movement of trade. The learned judge has also referred to the observation of the Supreme Court in the Atiabari Tea Co. caseA.I.R. 1961 S.C. 232., that article 301 is mainly concerned with the "movement part of the trade". With this in mind, if we consider the situation here, the hollowness of the contention of Mr. Viswanatha Iyer will clearly emerge. There is n ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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