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TMI Blog2006 (6) TMI 474X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... also submitted that he had no purchase tax liability on the turnover. He indicated in the said turnover the purchase of the tea from East Hope Town Company and he also submitted that the purchase tax is not liable to be taxed on the said purchase. The assessing authority did not accept the said turnover and levied the purchase tax on the resale of the tea leaves after getting it processed from East Hope Town Company. Feeling aggrieved by the said order he preferred the first appeal before the Joint Commissioner (Appeal), Trade Tax, Dehradun and he allowed the appeal and exonerated the assessee from the tax. Thereafter the department preferred the second appeal before the Trade Tax Tribunal. The Tribunal reversed the order of the first appel ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... uld have purchased the goods and after purchasing, when he resells such goods within the State then the purchase tax cannot be levied if the same purchased goods had been resold in the same form and condition in which he had purchased them. It is not disputed that the assessee was purchasing the green tea leaves from the other tea gardens and thereafter the assessee was processing the same to make it usable and thereafter the assessee was reselling the same tea to others. The assessing authority had held that the purchasing dealer was not reselling the goods in the same form and condition in which he had purchased it. According to the learned Additional Advocate-General, if the assessee would have sold the green tea plucked from the tree pl ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... or in a current of hot air then the tea leaves are fermented in baskets, glasses and in clothes. Thereafter the leaves were then subjected to grading with sieves of various sizes. The said leaves are finally roasted with charcoal for obtaining suitable flavour and colour. Thereafter the said tea is packed in the packets. The processing of the tea becomes marketable by minimal process they are made fit for human consumption. In my opinion all the above processes, as I have enumerated above, were necessary for the purpose of saving the tea leaves from perishing. In case the above process is not carried out immediately the entire tea leaves would be perished. If, after plucking tea leaves immediately from the tree are sold to different hands a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hem. The process of fermentation or final roasting with charcoal for obtaining suitable flavour or colour and also the process at no point of time crossed that limit and robbed the tea leaves, the agricultural produce, of their character of being and continuing as such substantially. Thereafter the matter came up before the Allahabad High Court in Dehradun Tea Company v. Commissioner of Sales Tax reported in [1980] UPTC 459 in which it has been held that green tea leaves are admittedly agricultural produce. It cannot be disputed that without processing they have no market value. What was grown was tea. And what was sold after processing was also tea. The commodity remained the same. Without processing green leaves would have rusted. The p ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hat the process adopted by the dealer would amount to a manufacture as per the definition of "manufacture" under section 2(e-1) of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948. Repealing the contention, the honourable apex Court held that the purpose of the Sales Tax Act is to levy tax on sale of goods of each variety and not the sale of the substance out of which they may have been made. As soon as separate commercial commodities emerge or come into existence, they become separately taxable goods for purposes of sales tax. Where commercial goods, without change of their identity as such goods, are merely subjected to some processing or finishing, they may remain commercially the same goods which cannot be taxed again. The honourable apex Court also held ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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