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TMI Blog1972 (5) TMI 55X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... o not fall under item 17 in Schedule A, but fall under item 34 in Schedule B and, therefore, these pumping sets are not liable to any sales tax. Section 4 of the Punjab Sales Tax Act as applicable to Haryana, provides that: "Subject to the provisions of sections 5 and 6, every dealer, except one dealing exclusively in goods declared tax-free under section 6, whose gross turnover during the year immediately preceding the commencement of this Act exceeded the taxable quantum, shall be liable to pay tax under this Act on all sales effected after the coming into force of this Act." Section 5 provides the rate of tax. In the case of luxury goods the extent of tax is 10 per cent., whereas in the case of other goods, it is 6 per cent. Luxury goods have been enumerated in Schedule A, but have not been defined either in the Act or the Rules made thereunder. Section 6 deals with tax-free goods. Tax-free goods are specified in the first column of Schedule B. Section 6 enables the Government to put conditions and make exceptions with regard to tax-free goods. The Government can, after giving a notice of not less than two months, either add to or delete from Schedule B. Sales tax authoritie ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... lture as well as to other occupations. For instance, nobody can deny that a spade is an agricultural implement, whereas in all building operations in big towns, spade is as much a part of a building implement as it is part of an agricultural implement in a village. Merely because, a spade is put to various other uses unconnected with agriculture, it will not cease to be an agricultural implement. It will now be proper to refer to a very illuminating discussion in The State of Andhra Pradesh v. Indian Detonators Ltd., Hyderabad[1971] 28 S.T.C. 84. The judgment of the court was delivered by the learned Chief justice. While dealing with the entries in the schedule of the relevant Sales Tax Act of the State of Andhra Pradesh and after referring to the observations of the Supreme Court in Ramavatar Budhaiprasad v. The Assistant Sales Tax Officer, Akola, and Another [1961] 12 S.T.C. 286 (S.C.)., it was observed: "The expression 'electrical goods' has not been defined in the Act. Neither the Act nor the Rules thereunder have laid down any test to be satisfied before any given article is brought within the scope of entry 37. The appellate authority, therefore, relying on the test laid dow ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... elaborately f or the position has been made further clear in a later decision of the Madras High Court in Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Madurai Division, Madurai v. Ravi Auto Stores[1968] 22 S.T.C. 172. It was laid down therein as follows: 'Intrinsically, the goods in question must be electrical goods and secondly their use cannot be had without electrical energy. Merely because an article cannot be used without electricity, it may not be decisive. It is necessary that, apart from that fact, the article, by its very nature, answers the description of "electrical goods".' We find ourselves in respectful agreement with this proposition. The expression 'electrical goods', of course, as already stated, is not defined in the Act or the Rules. In the absence of any specific meaning given to it in the Act we have to necessarily construe it and understand the same in the sense it is used in common parlance. This principle is well recognised and has been followed by the Supreme Court in several cases. While construing the word 'vegetables' in item 6 in Schedule II of the C. P. and Berar Sales Tax Act (21 of 1947) in Ramavatar Budhaiprasad v. The Assistant Sales Tax Officer, Ako ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... It cannot be used for any other purpose. The electric motor is merely the locomotion to work the pump. If the pumping part is removed, it ceases to be of any use as a pump. Thus, the monoblock pumping sets cannot be classed as electrical goods. An agriculturist who is installing a pump to irrigate his land will call a pumping set as an agricultural implement, whereas a person having such a pump to provide water for his personal use at his residence will not term it as an agricultural implement. It will be seen that the instrument or the tool remains the same, but its use will make it either an agricultural implement or not. It is for this reason that we mentioned the illustration of a spade, which no one can deny is an agricultural implement. Mr. Jain has relied upon the decision in Delta Engineering Co. Private Ltd. v. Commissioner of Sales Tax[1963] 14 S.T.C. 515. , where the centrifugal water pump was not held to be an agricultural implement. With utmost respect to the learned judges, who took that view, we are unable to agree with the same. We have already indicated our reasons in detail, that a pumping set used mainly to irrigate agricultural lands is merely an agricultural ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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