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TMI Blog2017 (1) TMI 958X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n Civil Appeal Nos. 10972-10978 of 2016 and Mr. K.N. Bhat, learned senior counsel for the respondent-State. 3. The foundational facts, albeit not in dispute present the required preface. The appellant is a dealer in the motor vehicles and registered under the Act. Its version is that during the years in question i.e. 2007-2008 and 2008-2009, it raised tax invoices on the purchasers as per the policy of manufacturers of vehicles to maintain uniformity in the price thereof. After the sales were completed, credit notes were issued to the customers granting discounts, in order to meet the competition in the market and for allied reasons. Consequentially, it received/retained only the net amount, that is the amount shown in the invoice less the sum of discount disclosed in the credit note. Accordingly, the net amount, so received was reflected in his books of account and returns were filed under Income Tax Act, 1961 et al. 4. The Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, (Audit-1.6), VAT Division No.1-1, Gandhi Nagar, Bangalore i.e. the respondent No.3, as the Assessing Authority by his reassessment orders dated 21.06.2010 allowed deductions claimed by the appellant towards discount ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ssible deduction to compute the eventual taxable turnover, such discount was to be necessarily reflected in the sale invoice to qualify for such deduction. It thus concluded that by issuing a credit note after receiving the amounts even before the filing of the returns, it could not be construed that the discounts were not includible in the turnover. The claim of deduction of the discount extended through credit notes after the completion of the sale but not divulged in the tax invoice was negated. As the above rendition was founded on the verdict under scrutiny in the previous batch of appeals where M/s Southern Motors figures as the appellant, and the issue seeking adjudication is common, all these appeals with the aforenoted marginal factual variations have been analogously heard. 6. As the dissension stems from contrasting interpretations of the underlying purport of Rule 3(2)(c) of the Rules in the context of the scheme of the Act as a whole and Section 30 thereof and Rule 31 of the Rules in particular, further reference to the factual details would be inessential. 7. The emphatic insistence on behalf of the appellant is that the combined reading of Section 30 and Rule 31 de ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... reflected in the tax invoice or the bill of sale issued in respect of the sales. According to them, Section 30 and Rule 31 deal with a situation where after a tax invoice is issued, it transpires that the tax charged has either exceeded or has fallen short of the tax payable for which a credit/debit note, as the case may be, would be issued. As these two provisions do not regulate the computation of a taxable turnover, there is no correlation thereof with Rule 3(2)(c) of the Rules which has been assigned an independent role to determine the tax liability. In absence of any specific provision in the parent statute granting tax exemption based on deduction founded on post sale trade discount, Section 30 and Rule 31 are of no avail to the assesses, he urged. It is maintained that in any view of the matter, a taxing statute has to be construed strictly and any exemption is permissible only if the legislation permits the same. Reliance in buttressal of the above has been placed on the decisions of this Court in A.V. Fernandez vs. The State of Kerala 1957 SCR 837, IFB Industries Ltd. vs. State of Kerala (2012) 4 SCC 618 and Jayam & Co. vs. Assistant Commissioner and Another (2016) 8 SCA ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... cash or for deferred payment or other valuable consideration, and includes the aggregate amount for which goods are purchased from a person not registered under the Act and the value of goods transferred or despatched outside the State otherwise than by way of sale, and subject to such conditions and restrictions as may be prescribed the amount for which goods are sold shall include any sums charged for anything done by the dealer in respect of the goods sold at the time of or before the delivery thereof. Explanation.- The value of the goods transferred or despatched outside the State otherwise than by way of sale, shall be the amount for which the goods are ordinarily sold by the dealer or the prevailing market price of such goods where the dealer does not ordinarily sell the goods." 12. Section 3 is the charging provision and the modes of fixation of rate and measure of tax exigible under the statute are enumerated in Section 4. Having regard to the exigency of the adjudication, appropriate it would be to extract Sections 29 and 30 of the Act as hereunder: "29. Tax invoices and bills of sale (1) A registered dealer effecting a sale of taxable goods or exempt goods along ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ng a sale of taxable goods or goods exempted from tax along with any taxable goods in excess of the prescribed value, to issue at the time of sale, a tax invoice marked as original for the sale and containing the particulars prescribed. Thereunder a registered dealer in the eventualities mentioned therein has to issue a bill of sale containing such particulars as may be prescribed. Section 30 mandates that where such a tax invoice has been issued for any sale of goods and withing six months from the date of such sale, the amount shown as tax charged in that tax invoice is found to exceed the tax payable in respect of the sale effected, or is not payable on account of goods sold being returned within the prescribed period, the registered dealer effecting the sale, would issue forthwith to the purchaser, a credit note containing the particulars as prescribed. The Section further stipulates that when a tax invoice has been issued for sale of any goods and the tax payable in respect of the sale exceeds the amount shown as tax charged in such tax invoice, the registered dealer making the sale would issue to the purchaser, a debit note containing the particulars as prescribed. It is furt ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... taxable turnover should essentially be mentioned in the tax invoice or bill of sale issued in respect of the sales and further the purchaser has to reflect in his accounts that he had paid only the sum originally charged less the discount, the appellants contend that having regard to the uniform canons regulating the trade practice, a trade discount though in comprehension at the time of original sale is not always precisely quantifiable at that point of time and is contingent on variable factors to be computed only on the happening of a future event(s). In any case, however as the discount eventually sanctioned is tangible and actual, the literal interpretation sought to be given to the contents of first proviso to Rule 3(2)(c) is expressly illogical and if accepted would lead to absurd results rendering this provision redundant and unworkable. 16. Before embarking on analysis of the competing assertions, expedient it would be to advert to the citations addressed at the Bar. 17. In A.V. Fernandis (supra), a Constitution Bench of this Court while dwelling on the interpretation of the relevant provisions of the United State of Travancore and Cochin General Sales Tax Act, 1125 and ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the tax could be imposed. In the latter case, the sales or the purchases were exempted from taxation altogether. It was thus ruled that as the sales beyond the State, were not liable to tax, those were liable to be excluded from the calculation of the gross turnover as well as the net turnover on which the sales tax could be levied or imposed. The attempt on the part of the appellant-assessee to include the turnover of the sales beyond the State in the gross turnover and thereafter to seek a deduction thereof was thus disapproved. 20. The distinction between "trade discount" and "cash discount" was elaborated upon by this Court in M/s. Advani Oorlikon (P) Ltd. (supra), in re, the question whether for the purpose of computing the turnover assessed to sales tax therein, under the Central Sales Tax Act 1956, the sale price of goods was to be determined by including the amount paid by way of trade discount. The facts as unfolded evinced that the assessee was a private limited company, carrying on business as sole selling agent for certain brand of welding electrodes and for the goods supplied to the retailers, it charged them the catalogue price less the trade discount. The concerned ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s into the computation of the assessee's turnover for the purpose of assessment under the Sales Tax Act would be determined after deducting the trade discount from the catalogue price. 22. The decision in Jayam and Company (supra) cited by the Revenue was to underline the postulation that whenever concession is given by a statute, notification etc., the conditions thereof are to be strictly complied with in order to avail the same. Section 19(20) of the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006, which in clear terms, denied the benefit of Input Tax Credit, where any registered dealer sold goods at a price lesser than the price at which the same had been purchased, was adverted to consolidate this proposition. Noticeably, this provision of the statute involved, which fell for scrutiny, did by unequivocal mandate deny the availment of the income tax credit, in case the registered dealer/assessee had sold goods at a price lesser than the price at which the same had been purchased by him. 23. In IFB Industries Ltd. (supra), this Court was seized with the query as to how far deductions were allowable under Rule 9 (a) of the Kerala General Sales Tax Rules, 1963 for trade discounts. The ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... le for exemption thereunder must be reflected in the invoice itself. While dilating on the notion of "trade discount" to be a deduction from the catalogue price of goods allowed by wholesalers to the retailers engaged in the trade to enable the latter to sell the goods at the catalogue price and yet make a reasonable margin of profit after taking into account his business expense, the following observations of this Court in Union of India and others vs. Bombay Tyres International (P) Ltd. (2005) 3 SCC 787, describing "trade discount" and countenancing its deductibility from the sale price were alluded to: "(1) Trade discounts - Discounts allowed in the trade (by whatever name such discount is described) should be allowed to be deducted from the sale price having regard to the nature of the goods, if established under agreements or under terms of sale or by established practice, the allowance and the nature of the discount being known at or prior to the removal of the goods. Such trade discounts shall not be disallowed only because they are not payable at the time of each invoice or deducted from the invoice price." (emphasis supplied) 24. This rendering presumably had been cite ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... so as to determine the eventual tax liability. 26. The parties noticeably are not in issue over the prevalence of trade discount contemplated in regular practice and that wherever warranted, the dealing parties in accord therewith do enter into a contract or agreement to apply the same for reduction of the sale/purchase price. Understandably, the taxable turnover is the summation of the actual sale/purchase price exigible to tax under the Act and the Rules. Depending on the eventualities as comprehended in Section 30, credit and debit notes are issued, as a consequence whereof, the tax liability is reduced or enhanced correspondingly and the same is determined on the basis of the declarations made by the assessees in their returns. That there is an inseverable co-relation between the taxable turn over and the tax payable need not be over emphasized. Noticeably, Section 30 dilates on the contingencies witnessing reduction or enhancement of tax liability subsequent to the sale/purchase of goods. The tax liability, to reiterate would be contingent on the sale/purchase price in the eventual sale/purchase price, to be essentially reflected in the return of the assessee. Section 30 axio ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ts, to reiterate, have already been recognized by this Court with the emphatic rider that the same ought not to be disallowed only as they are not payable at the time of each invoice or deducted from the invoice price. In our comprehension, Sections 29, 30 and Rule 3 are the constituents of a same scheme to determine the taxable turnover and thus the extent of exigibility. Whereas Sections 29 and 30, to repeat, deal with the issuance of tax invoice and bill of sale to start with and thereafter credit and debit notes to be in accord with the tax actually payable, Rule 3 in a way espouses the exercise of ascertaining the taxable turnover by enumerating the permissible deductions from the total turnover. We are thus of the considered view that there is no repugnance or conflict amongst these three provisions so much so that Rule 3(2)(c) stands out in isolation and is incompatible with either the scheme of the Act or Sections 29 and 30 to be precise. The interplay of these three provisions is directed to ensure correct computation of the taxable turnover for an accurate computation of the tax liability. These provisions therefore for all practical purposes complement each other and are ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in respect of the transfer by an amount of not less than 15% of the value so declared. Once the Income-tax Officer is satisfied that this condition exists, he can proceed to invoke the provision in Section 52 Sub-section (2) and take the fair market value of the capital asset transferred by the assessee as on the date of the transfer as representing the full value of the consideration for the transfer of the capital asset and compute the capital gains on that basis. No more is necessary to be proved, contended the Revenue. To introduce any further condition such as understatement of consideration in respect of the transfer would be to read into the statutory provision something which is not there: indeed it would amount to rewriting the section. This argument was based on a strictly literal reading of Section 52 Sub-section (2) but we do not think such a construction can be accepted. It ignores several vital considerations which must always be borne in mind when we are interpreting a statutory provision. The task of interpretation of a statutory enactment is not a mechanical task. It is more than a mere reading of mathematical formulae because few words possess the precision of mat ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d by the legislature. Take, for example, a case where A agrees to sell his property to B for a certain price and before the sale is completed pursuant to the agreement and it is quite well-known that sometimes the competition of the sale may take place even a couple of years after the date of the agreement-the market price shoots up with the result that the market price prevailing on the date of the sale exceeds the agreed price at which the property is sold by more than 15% of such agreed price. This is not at all an uncommon case in an economy of rising prices and in fact we would find in a large number of cases where the sale is completed more than a year or two after the date of the agreement that the market price prevailing on the date of the sale is very much more than the price at which the property is sold under the agreement. Can it be contended with any degree of fairness and justice that in such cases, where there is clearly no understatement of consideration in respect of the transfer and the transaction is perfectly honest and bonafide and, in fact, in fulfillment of a contractual obligation, the assessee who has sold the property should be liable to pay tax on capital ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... constituting the basic assumption underlying the statutory provision. We think that, having regard to this well recognised rule of interpretation, a fair and reasonable construction of Section 52 Sub-section (2) would be to read into it a condition that it would apply only where the consideration for the transfer is under-stated or in other words, the assessee has actually received a larger consideration for the transfer than what is declared in the instrument of transfer and it would have no application in case of a bonafide transaction where the full value of the consideration for the transfer is correctly declared by the assessee. There are several important considerations which incline us to accept this construction of Section 52 Sub-section (2)." 30. In Commissioner of Income Tax, Bangalore Vs. J.H. Gotla Yadagiri AIR 1985 SC 1698 this Court propounded that though equity and taxation are often strangers, attempts should be made that these do not remain always so and if a construction results in equity rather than injustice, then such construction should be preferred to the literal construction. 31. In a recent rendition in State of Jharkhand and others vs. Tata Steel Ltd. a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... here." [Underlining is ours] 32. In the same vein, the following passage from M/s Doypack Systems Pvt. Ltd. vs. Union of India and Ors. (1988) 2 SCC 299 was adverted to: "58. The words in the statute must, prima facie, be given their ordinary meanings. Where the grammatical construction is clear and manifest and without doubt, that construction ought to prevail unless there are some strong and obvious reasons to the contrary. Nothing has been shown to warrant that literal construction should not be given effect to. See Chandavarkar S.R. Rao v. Ashalata (1986) 4 SCC 447 approving 44 Halsbury's Laws of England, 4th Edn., para 856 at page 552, Nokes v. Doncaster Amalgamated Collieries Limited 1940 AC 1014. It must be emphasised that interpretation must be in consonance with the Directive Principles of State Policy in Article 39 (b) and (c) of the Constitution. 59. It has to be reiterated that the object of interpretation of a statute is to discover the intention of the Parliament as expressed in the Act. The dominant purpose in construing a statute is to ascertain the intention of the legislature as expressed in the statute, considering it as a whole and in its context. Tha ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rovision must be so construed, if possible, that absurdity and mischief may be avoided. It was held that construction suggested on behalf of the Revenue would lead to a wholly unreasonable result which could never have been intended by the legislature. It was said that the literalness in the interpretation of Section 52(2) must be eschewed and the court should try to arrive at an interpretation which avoids the absurdity and the mischief and makes the provision rational, sensible, unless of course, the hands of the court are tied and it cannot find any escape from the tyranny of literal interpretation. It is said that it is now well-settled rule of construction that where the plain literal interpretation of a statutory provision produces a manifestly absurd and unjust result which could never have been intended by the legislature, the court may modify the language used by the legislature or even "do some violence" to it, so as to achieve the obvious intention of the legislature and produce a rational construction. In such a case the court may read into the statutory provision a condition which, though not expressed, is implicit in construing the basic assumption underlying the stat ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... essentially in accord with the legislative intention to sustain realistically the benefit of trade discount as envisaged. Any exposition to probabilise exaction of the levy in excess of the due, being impermissible cannot be thus a conceivable entailment of any law on imperative impost. To insist on the quantification of trade discount for deduction at the time of sale itself, by incorporating the same in the tax invoice/bill of sale, would be to demand the impossible for all practical purposes and thus would be ill-logical, irrational and absurd. To reiterate, trade discount though an admitted phenomenon in commerce, the computation thereof may depend on various factors singular to the parties as well as by way of uniform norms in business not necessarily enforceable or implementable at the time of the original sale. To deny the benefit of deduction only on the ground of omission to reflect the trade discount though actually granted in future, in the tax invoice/bill of sale at the time of the original transaction would be to ignore the contemporaneous actuality and be unrealistic, unfair, unjust and deprivatory. This may herald as well the possible unauthorised taxation even in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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