9911796707
TMI Blog1973 (8) TMI 151X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... al Sales Tax Act in Madras, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal. The petitioner deals in iron and steel sections, bars, sheets, pipes, etc., manufactured at their various steel plants distributed over the States in our country. The Madras office gathers the contracts and the relevant particulars of requirements from various intra-State parties in this State and transmits them to the head office at Calcutta for being dealt with by them according to the exigencies such as availability of the material and other factors governing the supply. During the assessment years 1964-65 to 1968-69, the petitioner was subject to Central sales tax for all the Inter-State transactions it had with the purchasers in this State. Those assessments were compl ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ls as regards the quantum of assessment; but suffice it to say that the notices issued after reopening of the assessment indicates that several lakhs of rupees have escaped assessment in the process. In the order of assessment, which is challenged before me, the assessing authority has given succinctly the facts which it may not be necessary to notice at this stage. The course of dealings which the petitioner had through its Madras office may be summarised thus: The customers or buyers of the petitioner In the State of Tamil Nadu plated orders with the petitioner's principal office at Calcutta for their requirements of iron, steel, hardware, etc. It is common ground that all such memos containing details of requirements, ordinarily known as ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e deemed to be unascertained goods and having regard to section 3(2)(b) read with section 4(2)(b) thereto and on the basic hypothesis that the goods are unascertained goods came to the conclusion that the situs of the assessment is Madras and that having been overlooked in the earlier four years when the assessments were concluded, there has been an escapement of tax, and such an escapement was brought to tax in the proceedings undertaken by the revenue when it reopened it as stated already. They were of the view that section 9(1) of the Act was not applicable to the facts of the case as they were definite that it was not a sale of ascertained goods. On this basis, the impugned orders of assessments were made. The petitioner has come up ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of Central sales tax by the respective out-of-State States is in accordance with law. The primary document which almost clinches the issue before me is the invoice which the petitioner issues on every occasion when it has information about the despatch of the goods by its plants. A form of invoice has been produced before me. This shows that there was an order which the buyer placed with it and that it was accepted by it on a particular date. The other particulars given in the invoice are the quality of the sections, the number of pieces it contains, its weight and ultimately its price per ton. In the ordinary course of mercantile transactions invoices are prepared on the basis of concluded contracts. An invoice is a mercantile document ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the facts and circumstances of each case. I have already referred to the invoice in this case. The preparation of the invoice by itself is reflective of a clear unalterable intention on the part of the seller that he has not only accepted the contract and performed it, but has appropriated the goods ordered for towards that contract and it was pursuant to such a declared intention that the goods were being despatched or were despatched. Such being the evidence in the instant case, I am unable to agree with the learned counsel for the revenue that even after the preparation of the invoice and in the light of the circumstances disclosed on record, it should still be held that the goods despatched at the instance of the petitioner and duly inv ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f the goods within the meaning of section 3(a) of the Central Sales Tax Act, rightly brought to tax those transactions under the provisions of the Central Sales Tax Act. Those assessments were circuitously challenged as is done in the Instant case by the State of Madras stating that such Inter-State transactions have to suffer Central sales tax in the hands of the assessing authorities at Madras. This was negatived by a Division Bench of our Court. Ramanujam, J., delivering the judgment on behalf of the Bench, while upholding the theory that in the case of ascertained goods when such goods moved as a result of a contract of sale from a State which is out-of-State, as regards the State of Madras, then it is that State which has the jurisdict ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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