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1997 (1) TMI 510

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..... the State of Haryana and despatched the same to its head office for export out of India in execution of the orders booked from the foreign buyers. The consignments were sent from Faridabad to Calcutta through train. It is said that no octroi was paid at Calcutta because under the local laws no octroi is payable on the goods which are exclusively meant for export. 4.. After the petitioner had filed its return, the Assessing Authority issued a notice for levy of purchase tax. The petitioner produced records of the head office and the branch office and filed an affidavit of Mr. R.K. Sarawagi, Director of the company, to show that the goods purchased at Faridabad were meant for export out of India. After hearing the representative of the petitioner, the Assessing Authority held that purchase tax amounting to Rs. 43,802.36 was payable by the petitioner. The appeal filed by the petitioner came to be dismissed by the appellate authority. The second appeal preferred by the petitioner has been dismissed by the Sales Tax Tribunal, Haryana. 5.. Mr. B.K. Jhingan, learned counsel for the petitioner, argued that the respondents have no authority to levy purchase tax on the petitioner in res .....

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..... le or purchase of goods.-(1) No law of a State shall impose, or authorise the imposition of, a tax on the sale or purchase of goods where such sale or purchase takes place- (a) outside the State; or (b) in the course of the import of the goods into, or export of the goods out of, the territory of India. (2) Parliament may by law formulate principles for determining when a sale or purchase of goods takes place in any of the ways mentioned in clause (1). (3) Any law of a State shall, in so far as it imposes, or authorises the imposition of, (a) a tax on the sale or purchase of goods declared by Parliament by law to be of special importance in inter-State trade or commerce; or (b) a tax on the sale or purchase of goods, being a tax of the nature referred to in sub-clause (b), sub-clause (c) or sub-clause (d) of clause (29A) of article 366, be subject to such restrictions and conditions in regard to the system of levy, rates and other incidents of the tax as Parliament may by law specify. Section 5, Central Sales Tax Act, 1956: 5. When is a sale or purchase of goods said to take place in the course of import or export.-(1) A sale or purchase of goods shall be deemed .....

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..... ns, the learned single Judge held: ..............If a person carries on business at two places under the same name he will continue to have one entity and not two simply because he has business centres at two places. The respondents admitted, as is also clear from the impugned assessment order (copy annexure A), that the cotton purchased by the Bhatinda branch office was exported by the head office at Bombay to foreign countries. The Bhatinda branch office can be said to have purchased the cotton in the course of export out of the territory of India. It was, therefore, not proper for the Assessing Authority to hold that since the purchases of cotton were made by the branch office at Bhatinda and the cotton was then transferred to the head office at Bombay which in turn exported it outside India, the exemption claimed by the petitioners under section 5(2)(a)(vi) of the Act could not be granted. In view of the matter, the Assessing Authority should have allowed the exemption claimed by the petitioners from their gross turnover under section 5(2)(a)(vi) of the Act and the omission to do so invalidated the impugned order. 11.. In New Rajasthan Mineral Syndicate s case [1965] 16 STC .....

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..... t the appellant sold the goods directly to the Corporation to facilitate the performance of the contract between the Corporation and the foreign buyer on terms which were similar did not make the contract between the appellant and the Corporation the immediate cause of the export. The appellant was under no contractual obligation to the foreign buyer either directly or indirectly. The rights of the appellant were against the Corporation. Similarly the obligations of the appellant were to the Corporation. The foreign buyer could not claim any right against the appellant nor did the appellant have any obligation to the foreign buyer. All acts done by the appellant were in performance of the appellant s obligation under the contract with the corporation and not in performance of the obligations of the corporation to the foreign buyer; (ii) that there was no principal and agent relationship between the appellant and the corporation and in the absence of such relationship the agency of necessity did not arise. The relationship between the appellant and the corporation was between two principals and there was no aspect whatever of principal and agent; (iii) that the mention of the f. .....

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..... ribunal which have been impugned in this writ petition, clearly show that the petitioner-company has its registered office at Calcutta and the branch office at Faridabad. It has also been proved by the petitioner that the goods purchased by the branch office were sent to the head office at Calcutta for the purpose of export and the same were, in fact, exported. The Assessing Authority recorded a categorical finding that the record produced by the assessee showed that the orders were received directly by the head office from the foreign countries and the goods were not exported directly by the Faridabad dealer. The Tribunal did not record a finding that the head office at Calcutta and the branch office at Faridabad were two different entities. Rather, it held that this aspect of the case was not very much relevant. The Tribunal further observed that the State has not come out with a case that the goods were sold by the branch office at Faridabad to the head office at Calcutta; and, in fact, the movement of the goods from Faridabad to Calcutta was made in the course of export of goods outside the territory of India within the meaning of section 5(1) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 .....

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