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TMI Blog1991 (8) TMI 311X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... stem of levy, rates and other incidents of the tax as Parliament may by law specify. In view of the aforesaid constitutional mandate provisions were made in the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 (for short, "the CST Act"). Section 2(c) of the CST Act defines "declared goods" and the said term means goods declared under section 14 to be of special importance in inter-State trade or commerce. Section 14 of the CST Act declares certain goods to be of special importance in inter-State trade or commerce, and for the convenience these goods have come to be known as "declared goods". A conjoint reading of sections 14 and 15 of the CST Act will show that so far as declaration of goods under section 14 is concerned, the sales tax law of the State shall impose or authorise imposition of tax not exceeding 4 per cent of the sale or purchase price thereof and such tax shall not be levied at more than one stage. So far as clause (i) of section 14 of the CST Act is concerned, it reads as under: "Section 14: Certain goods to be of special importance in inter-State trade or commerce.-It is hereby declared that the following goods are of special importance in inter-State trade or commerce- (i) cereals ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... (one of the petitioners) were taxed under the aforesaid notifications dated September 8, 1976, March 26, 1988 and March 23, 1989 on the plea that with effect from September 8, 1976, wheat as such is a declared commodity under section 14 of the CST Act and therefore, the restrictions prescribed under section 15 of the said Act do not apply to the other forms of wheat, i.e., flour and fine-flour (maida and suji) and the Rajasthan Sales Tax Tribunal confirmed the levy under the notification dated September 8, 1976. The litigation is going on and the matter is said to be pending in this Court in various revision petitions under the RST Act. 6.. The petitioners' case further is that in the year 1989 the case of Dhanbad Flour Mills v. State of Bihar [1989] 75 STC 47 (Pat) came to the notice of the petitioner wherein a view had been taken that atta, maida and suji, which are obtained by merely reducing the size of wheat grains into smaller particles or powder, are included in the item "wheat" in section 14(i)(iii) of the CST Act and are to be treated as declared goods. Additional tax under section 6 of the Bihar Finance Act, 1981, is not exigible thereon. It is the case of the petitione ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... are forms of wheat and therefore they are declared goods which have already suffered tax at the rate of 4 per cent as provided under section 15. We will therefore proceed to examine the issue and we will see as to whether in the term "wheat" in clause (i)(iii) of section 14 of the CST Act, flour or fine-flour are also included or "wheat" has been used therein in the restricted sense? 9.. It was contended by the learned counsel for the petitioners that flour and fine-flour, i.e., maida and suji are merely forms of wheat and therefore are declared goods under the above referred clause (i)(iii) of section 14 of the CST Act. Learned counsel has built his case on the case of Dhanbad Flour Mills' case [1989] 75 STC 47 wherein the Patna High Court has taken a view that atta, maida and suji are included in the item "wheat" in section 14(i)(iii) of the CST Act. In the aforesaid case reliance was also placed upon the case of Alladi Venkateswarlu v. Government of Andhra Pradesh [1978] 41 STC 394 (SC). In the aforesaid case of Alladi Venkateswarlu [1978] 41 STC 394 the apex Court was dealing with word and phrase "rice" which too are declared goods under clause (i)(ii) of section 14 of the C ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to so interpret a taxing statute as to impute an intention to the Legislature to go on taxing what is virtually the same product in different forms over and over again. Such a result would be contrary to basic axioms of taxation. Unless the language of the taxing statute was absolutely clear, it should not be given an obviously unfair interpretation against the assessee." (underlining* is ours) The court quoted Kayani and Co. v. Commissioner of Sales Tax [1953] 4 STC 387 (Hyd.) and said that: "The only principle deducible from it is that the commonly accepted sense of a term should prevail in construing the description of an article of food. While dealing with an item meant for rice as a cereal, the court had accepted a more limited meaning of the term 'rice' so as to exclude cooked rice in all its forms. Of course, the case before us is not a case of rice cooked and prepared in the form of 'pulao' or 'biriyani' or any other type of cooked rice which may have undergone changes of character by additions or chemical transformation which may convert it into a food product with a substantially different identity. It was only converted from unedible grain into an edible form by pa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to the aforesaid cases at a later stage of this order. 10.. We have already extracted in the earlier part of this order clause (i)(iii) of section 14 of the CST Act. We are of the opinion, it will be proper to read the entire section 14 of the CST Act even if it may lead to repetition in so far as clause (i)(iii) is concerned. Section 14 of the CST Act reads as under: "Section 14: Certain goods to be of special importance in inter-State trade or commerce.-It is hereby declared that the following goods are of special importance in inter-State trade or commerce- (i) cereals, that is to say,- (i) paddy (Oryza sativa L.) (ii) rice (Oryza sativa L.); (iii) wheat (Triticum vulgare, T. compactum, T. sphaerococcum, T. durum, T. aestivum L., T. dicoccum); *Reported in [1992] 84 STC 49 (Kar) (iv) jowar or milo (Sorghum vulgare Pers); (v) bajra (Pennisetum typhoideum L.); (vi) maize (Zea mays D.); (vii) ragi (Eleusine coracana gaertn.); (viii) kodon (Paspalum scrobiculatum L.); (ix) kutki (Panicum miliare L.); (x) barley (Hordeum vulgare L.); (ia) coal, including coke in all its forms, but excluding charcoal: Provided that during the period commencing on the 23rd ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n coil form, as rolled and in rivetted condition (vii) plates both plain and chequered in all qualities; (viii)discs, rings, forgings and steel castings; (ix) tool, alloy and special steels of any of the above categories; (x) steel melting scrap in all forms including steel skull, turnings and borings; (xi) steel tubes, both welded and seamless, of all diameters and lengths, including tube fittings; (xii) tin-plates, both hot dipped and electrolytic and tinfree plates; (xiii)fish plate bars, bearing plate bars, crossing sleeper bars, fish plates, bearing plates, crossing sleepers and pressed steel sleepers, rails-heavy and light crane rails; (xiv)wheels, tyres, axles and wheel sets; (xv) wire rods and wires-rolled, drawn, galvanised, aluminised, tinned or coated such as by copper; (xvi)detectives, rejects, cuttings or end pieces of any of the above categories; (v) jute, that is to say, the fibre extracted from plants belonging to the species Corchorus capsularies and Corchorus olitorius and the fibre known as mesta or bimli extracted from plants of the species Hibiscus cannabinus and Hibiscus sabdariffa-Varaltissima and the fibre known as Sunn or Sunnhemp extr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y the Parliament which was known as The Essential Goods (Declaration and Regulation of Tax on Sale or Purchase) Act, 1952 (for short "the Act of 1952") and Schedule was enacted under section 2 in which certain goods were declared as essential for the life of the community. Item 1 in the aforesaid Schedule, was as under: "Cereals and pulses in all forms including bread and flour including atta, maida, suji and bran (except when any such article is sold in sealed containers)." It was contended by Mr. Bapna, learned counsel, that rule of interpretation is that where two statutes dealing with the same subject-matter use different language it is an acknowledged rule of construction that one may be looked at as a guide to the construction of the other. If one uses distinct language imposing a penalty under certain circumstances and other does not, it is always an argument that the Legislature did not intend to impose a penalty in the later, for where they did so intend they plainly said so. Mr. Bapna referred to the "Principles of Statutory Interpretation" by Justice G.P. Singh, wherein the author at pages 167-168 said that: "Just as use of same language in a later statute as was u ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... possess the old identity and it is not a different identity and therefore, the fact that the Legislature in clause (i)(iii) of section 14 of the CST Act has only used the word "wheat" it has included in all its forms and it will not be confined to wheat alone. According to the learned counsel one has to apply the common sense rule and if one goes by the rule of common sense there is no dispute that all forms of wheat are wheat within the meaning of section 14(i)(iii) of the CST Act and will be subject to restrictions and conditions in respect of tax on sale or purchase as prescribed in section 15 of the CST Act. Mr. Bhojwani has relied on the aforesaid two cases, namely, Dhanbad Flour Mills' case [1989] 75 STC 47 (Pat) and New Swastik Flour Mill's case [1992] 84 STC 49 (Kar). In the case of Dhanbad Flour Mills [1989] 75 STC 47 (Pat), reliance was placed on the case of Alladi Venkateswarlu [1978] 41 STC 394 (SC) and we have already said in the earlier part of this order that it has no application to the present controversy, because it was not a case where the issue was whether the commodity was declared goods under section 14 of the CST Act, and the issue was only in respect of e ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . The question for consideration arose whether the broken dal continued to be arhar dal. The learned Judges said at page 120, para 3: "There is no essential physical change except that the dust is shaken off, the husk or covering is removed and the dal itself is broken down into smaller pieces." The court further said that: "Having regard to the processes leading to the preparation of the broken down dal purchased by the petitioner, we are unable to hold that it represents a new and different article from the original grain. There is nothing to show that it is commercially regarded as essentially of a distinctive character from the original grain either by virtue of its name, character or use." In the third of the aforesaid cases, namely, the case of Shri Kishan Satyanarain v. State of Madhya Pradesh [1983] 54 STC 25 the Madhya Pradesh High Court was dealing with clause (i)(ii) of section 14 of the CST Act, namely "rice". Placing reliance on the case of Alladi Venkateswarlu [1978] 41 STC 394 of the apex Court, the court said that the beaten rice and puffed rice would be taxable at the rate of 3 per cent and not at the rate of 10 per cent under the residuary entry 1 of Par ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ida and suji are not goods different from wheat. In taxing matters one has ultimately to take a common sense view of the matter. The terms as understood in the commercial sense and with reference to their use must be kept in view in order that a correct conclusion may be reached. The court should keep in mind whether one going to market to buy a commodity will purchase some different commodity offered to him. In this case, if a man goes to purchase wheat and if fine-flour, maida or suji is offered to him, will he purchase the same? Though, there can be no dispute that the flour and fine-flour (maida and suji) continued to be cereals and that they are obtained by crushing wheat into flour or fine-flour but in physical appearance maida and suji are different commodities than wheat. In the case of Ram Chandra Badrinarayan v. State of Orissa [1974] 33 STC 83, a Division Bench of the Orissa High Court was considering a case of besan. R.N. Misra, J., as he then was, speaking for the Bench, was examining the question whether there has been breach of declaration of assessee that the goods purchased by him for resale in Orissa have really been so resold. So far as sale of mung dal and biri ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ntial nature of the commodity. In the case of State of Gujarat v. Sakarwala Brothers [1967] 19 STC 24 (SC), the court was considering the case of "patasa", "harda" and "alchidana" and whether they fall within the definition of "sugar" in entry 47 of Schedule A to the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959. The said item of the said Act defined "sugar" which means any form of sugar containing more than 90 per cent of sucrose. The court said that the Legislature used the words "any form" in a sense distinct and different from any variety. The words "any form of sugar" are intended to cover sugar in any form, by whatever name called. The qualifying words are that it must contain more than 90 per cent sucrose. It will therefore appear that the case was decided on the intention of the Legislature by using the words "any form of sugar" and the court said that the use of the aforesaid words was intended to cover sugar any variety in whatever form it may be found and by whatever name it may be called. The court further said that: "In our view, the word 'form' would connote a visible aspect in which the thing exists or manifests itself. Sugar may manifest itself in the form of 'patasa' as a result of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... oud's Judicial Dictionary, 4th Edition, Volume 5, at page 2753, said"The quotation, given above, from Stroud's Judicial Dictionary shows that, ordinarily, the expression 'that is to say' is employed to make clear and fix the meaning of what is to be explained or defined. Such words are not used, as a rule, to amplify a meaning while removing a possible doubt for which purpose the word 'includes' is generally employed. In unusual cases, depending upon the context of the words 'that is to say' this expression may be followed by illustrative instances. In Megh Raj v. Allah Rakhia AIR 1947 PC 72, the words 'that is to say' with reference to a general category 'land' were held to introduce, 'the most general concept' when followed, inter alia, by the words 'right in or over land'. We think that the precise meaning of the words 'that is to say' must vary with the context. Where, as in Megh Raj's case AIR 1947 PC 72, the amplitude of legislative power to enact provisions with regard to 'land' and rights over it was meant to be indicated, the expression was given a wide scope because it came after the word 'land' and then followed 'rights over land' as an explanation of 'land'. Both were w ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ution (Forty-sixth Amendment) Act, 1982, the Parliament can declare by law and levy tax on the sales or purchase of goods declared to be of special importance in inter-State trade or commerce, but under the Act of 1952 under Schedule in clause 1 the entry was "cereals and pulses in all forms including bread and flour, including atta, maida, suji and bran (except when any such article is sold in sealed containers)". The said Act was repealed by section 16 of the CST Act as it stood before it was repealed by Repealing and Amending Act, 1960 (58 of 1960), and the CST Act was framed by the Parliament and in exercise of article 286(3) of the Constitution it declared the goods provided in section 14 of the CST Act to be of special importance. It will appear from a comparative study of the Schedule and more so its entry 1 of the Act of 1952 as well as clause (i) of section 14 of the CST Act that it is not mentioned that wheat in all forms is declared goods. It will further appear that in clause (ia) of section 14 of the CST Act that the Legislature has used the words "coal, including coke in all its forms but excluding charcoal". Again in clause (ii) the words used are "cotton, that is to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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