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TMI Blog2003 (1) TMI 678X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... State. The assessing authority originally completed the assessment granting exemption in respect of the sales turnover of this lorry. However, the assessment was reopened under section 19 of the Act on the ground that lorry which is sold is a motor vehicle which is different from chassis and body and therefore even if the chassis and the body had suffered tax at the point of first sale, the sales turnover of lorry is liable to tax under entry 86 of the First Schedule to the Act being a different commercial commodity. Though the assessee had filed appeals against this assessment order before the first appellate authority and before the Tribunal the said appellate authorities had only confirmed the assessment order. 4.. Dr. K.B. Muhamed Kutty, learned counsel for the assessee, submitted before us that the assessee admittedly had paid tax at the point of purchase of the chassis and also on the materials used for body building and since the mounting of the body on the chassis by using nuts and bolts will not convert the chassis into a different commercial commodity the sale of the lorry is not liable to tax. According to the counsel no manufacturing process is involved in mounting ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sioner of Sales Tax (Law) in [2003] 130 STC 69. the authorities and the Tribunal were perfectly justified in rejecting the claim of the assessee. 6. Before proceeding to consider the rival contentions it is necessary to advert to the relevant entries. Entry 86 of the First Schedule to the Act as it stood during the relevant period reads thus: (1) (2) (3) 86. Motor vehicles, chassis of motor vehicles, motor cycles, motor cycle combinations, motor scooter, mopeds, motorettes, three wheelers, motor vessels, motor engines, trailers, motor bodies built on chassis of motor vehicles, bodies built on motor vessels or engines and spare parts and accessories thereof. At the point of first sale in the State by a dealer who is liable to tax under section 5. 7. It is also necessary in this context to refer to entry 94 with the Explanation added by the Finance Act 8 of 2000 with effect from January 1, 2000. It reads thus: Sl. No. Description of goods Point of levy Rate of tax % 94. Motor vehicles, chassis of motor vehicles, motor cycles, motor cycle combinations, motor scooter, mopeds, motorettes, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rticular substances out of which these commodities may have been made. As soon as separate commercial commodities emerge or come into existence, they become separately taxable goods or entities for purposes of sales tax. Where commercial goods, without change of their identity as such goods, are merely subjected to some processing or finishing or are merely joined together, they may remain commercially the goods which cannot be taxed again, in a series of sales, so long as they retain their identity as goods of a particular type." The Supreme Court in fact referring to its earlier decision in Devi Dass Gopal Krishnan v. State of Punjab [1967] 20 STC 430 at 447 observed thus: "It is true that the question whether goods to be taxed have been subjected to a manufacturing process so as to produce a new marketable commodity, is the decisive test in determining whether an excise duty is leviable or not on certain goods. No doubt, in the law dealing with the sales tax, the taxable event is the sale and not the manufacture of goods. Nevertheless, if the question is whether a new commercial commodity has come into existence or not, so that its sale is a new taxable event, in the sales t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . Indeed, the two goods-rods and wires-are so closely knit in the sub-item that any separation of these does not seem permissible. It would bear repetition to say that multi-point sales tax on the declared goods being an interdiction of section 15 of the Act, we would not be justified in conceding the present demand of the Revenue unless a strong and cogent case were to be made out, which we do not find." 9.. A division Bench of this Court in the judgment dated October 11, 2001 in T.R.C. No. 37 of 2001 relying on the aforesaid two judgments of the Supreme Court held that the field latex and centrifuged latex are two different commercial commodities. In that case a contention raised by the assessee based on the fact that both the product can come under entry 161 of the First Schedule to the Act and hence they cannot be taxed separately cannot be accepted. 10.. In the light of these decisions if we consider entry 86 of the First Schedule to the Act it is at once clear that though motor vehicles, chassis of motor vehicles and body built on chassis of motor vehicles are grouped together in one item they are commercially different commodities. The lorry which is a motor vehicle, c ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f which considered the meaning of the definition of the word "manufacture" though in the context of determining as to whether in putting together a chassis and a body of chassis by using nuts and bolts there is a manufacture. Those decisions, according to us, have no relevance for the purpose of the present case since entry 86 itself treats these items as separate commercial commodities. In fact the entry relating to motor vehicles, chassis of motor vehicles, body built on motor vehicles substituted by entry 94 of the First Schedule with effect from January 1, 2000 itself makes the position clear that a motor vehicle is different from chassis of motor vehicle or a body of a motor vehicle. The explanation added to entry 94 clearly provides that when tax has been levied on chassis of motor vehicle or on body built on such chassis within the State the tax payable on the motor vehicle produced out of such chassis shall be reduced by the amount of tax paid on such chassis or body built on chassis. This is also a legislative recognition of the fact that a motor vehicle is different from chassis and body built on chassis. 14.. In the above circumstances, we are of the view that the auth ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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