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2005 (12) TMI 546

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..... (b) Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the process of preservation and tinning of fresh fruits and green vegetables could be described as manufacture as defined under section 2(e1) of the U.P. Trade Tax Act? Heard learned counsel for the parties. Learned counsel for the applicant submitted that the dealer was carrying on the business of jam, jellies, pickles, tinned fresh fruits and green vegetables. He submitted that the green vegetables and fresh fruits were cut into suitable sizes and were added with saline water for the purposes of preservation and were tinned to make them marketable. It is submitted that such fresh fruits and green vegetables after being tinned remained as fresh fruits and green vege .....

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..... 111 STC 425; [1998] UPTC 1086 and the decision of this court in the cases of Macneil and Magor Ltd. v. Commissioner of Trade Tax, U.P. reported in [2005] 26 NTN 6 and Three Star Paper Mill Pvt. Ltd., Chithera, District Gautam Budh Nagar v. Commissioner of Trade Tax [2005] 27 NTN 99. Learned Standing Counsel submitted that the process of preservation of fresh fruits and green vegetables packed in the tinned container brings out a new commercial commodity, hence amounts to manufacture. He submitted that after preservation and tinning the green vegetables and fresh fruits ceases to be the same green vegetables and fresh fruits. He submitted that the subsequent Notification No. 595 dated April 6, 1999 was clarificatory in nature. I have .....

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..... so shows the intent of the Legislature that fresh fruits in tinned container were included in the entry of fresh fruits and green vegetables . In this view of the matter, in my opinion, the order of the Tribunal is erroneous and cannot be sustained. In the case of Commissioner of Sales Tax v. National Industries Corporation [1991] UPTC 712, process of repacking of grease in small container has been held not amounting to manufacture within the definition of section 2(e1) of the Act. This court held that in the process of packing of grease the commodity has not been subjected to any manual, mechanical, chemical, electrical or any other like operation which may be called any art or process for producing, preparing or making any article. .....

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..... tantial period before resale. The apex court considered the definition of the manufacture under section 2(17) of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959 which is akin to the definition of the manufacture under the U.P. Trade Tax Act. The apex court held as follows: . . . The mere fact that the words used in the definition of 'manufacture' are very wide should not lead us to so widely interpret them as to render the provision practically meaningless and so as to treat the goods sold as different merely because some slight additions or changes are made in the goods which are purchased before they are sold. It is true that under the section it is not necessary that there should be 'manufacture' in the sense that a new commodi .....

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..... g principle: The purpose of sales tax 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, in a series of sales, so long as they retain their identity as goods of a particular type. In the case of Hansraj and Sons v. State of Jammu and Kashmir reported in [2002] 128 STC 203 (SC), processing of dry fruits has been held not amounting to m .....

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..... es as may be prescribed.' From a perusal of the definition, extracted above, it is clear that the processes of producing, making, extracting, alternating, ornamenting, finishing or otherwise processing, treating or adapting of any goods fall within the meaning of the term 'manufacture'. But it may be pointed out that every type of variation of the goods or finishing of goods would not amount to manufacture unless it results in emergence of new commercial commodity. In the instant case, the very nature of the activity does not result in manufacture because no new commercial commodity comes into existence. In the result, both the revisions are allowed. Orders of Tribunal are set aside and it is held that fresh fruits and gr .....

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