STATE OF KARNATAKA Vs. HINDUSTAN COPPER LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE points at issue in these revision petitions are:

(2.) TO answer the questions of law raised for consideration and decision of this Court, the facts in strp No. 102/1999 are noticed.

(3.) THE assessee is a Public Limited Company, a Government of Karnataka undertaking and is registered under the provisions of Karnataka Sales Tax Act, 1957 ('kst Act' for short) and central Sales Tax Act, 1956 ('cst Act' for short), dealing in copper, copper sulphate, etc. For the assessment year 1993-1994, the assessee had filed its annual returns, declaring its total turnover and taxable turnover and also had claimed certain exemption and deductions on the sales tax collected separately in its invoices, transactions governed under CST Act and the entry tax collected on the sale of copper and allied products, on the ground, that it had not included the same on the sale price of the goods sold as it had not collected sales tax on this component of entry tax. The assessing authority being of the view that the entry tax component forms part and parcel of the sale price of goods sold by the assessee, proposed to reject the returns filed by the assessee as incorrect and proposed to levy sales tax and turnover tax on the entry tax component collect at the appropriate rate. Accordingly, the assessing authority issued a pre-assessment notice directing the assessee to file its objections, if any, to the proposal made in the pre-assessment notice. The proposal made was objected to by the assessee - dealer by relying on the observations made by the Apex Court in the case of ANAND SWARUP MAHESH KUMAR v. COMMISSIONER OF SALES TAX. The assessing authority by his order dated 26. 2. 1996 while rejecting the objection of the assessee dealer has observed that the entry tax paid and collected separately in its sales invoices from the purchasers is a pre-sale expenditure and therefore, forms part and parcel of the sale price attracting sales tax under the Act.