LAWS(KER)-2002-9-43

JNANESH D SHENOY Vs. STATE OF KERALA

Decided On September 18, 2002
JNANESH D.SHENOY Appellant
V/S
STATE OF KERALA Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners in all these cases are either dental doctors, or hospitals, who have purchased dental chairs from manufacturers located outside Kerala. The dental chairs transported by the suppliers for delivery to the petitioners were detained at the sales tax checkpost demanding entry tax on the ground that the dental chair is furniture which attracts entry tax under the Kerala Tax on Entry of Goods into Local Areas Act, hereinafter called the Entry Tax Act . Furniture is an item introduced to the Schedule to the Entry Tax Act by notification. SRO 294/2000 with effect from 1.4.2000. Therefore after the amendment, there will be an entry tax on the entry of furniture from outside Kerala of Kerala for use or sale in Kerala. Of course, there is general exemption under notification for goods transported by registered dealers into Kerala for resale of such goods on which sales tax is payable by them in Kerala. However, articles brought by the consumers from outside the State for their own use in Kerala will attract entry tax. The respondents in all these cases who are either sales tax authorities attached to border checkposts or Intelligence Officers of the sales tax department or assessing officers under the Entry Tax Act have issued notices to the petitioners on the ground that dental chairs are furniture and therefore the same attracts entry tax. Of course, if the item answers the description of furniture as contemplated under the Entry Tax Act, then of course the petitioners will be liable to pay entry tax as the petitioners are using these articles in their clinics.

(2.) I heard counsel for the petitioners and also the Government Pleader for the State.

(3.) Counsel for the petitioners contended that dental chair is a medical equipment, and it is not a furniture as contemplated under the Entry Tax Act. The petitioners have relied on the decision of the Bombay High Court in COMMISSIONER OF SALES TAX V. ASSOCIATED DENTAL NAD MEDICAL SUPPLY CO., 37 STC 336 and that of the Gujarat High Court in THE STATE OF GUJART V. LAX TOOLS MANUFACTURERS, 46 STC 115. Reliance is also placed on clarification. Notification No.G.O.P.No 56/89/TD dated 22.3.1989 issued by the Government of Kerala in the context of the General Sales Tax Act stating that dental chair is not a steel furniture. On the other hand, the Government Pleader relied on the decision of this Court in DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF AGRL. INCOME TAX AND SALES TAX V. E.V. INDUSTRIES, 33 STC 308, wherein this Court held that hospital table, cots, bedside lockers, etc., are steel furniture. He also relied on the clarification issued by the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes under Section 59A of the KGST Act clarifying the position that the dental chair is nothing but steel furniture . The commissioner also relied on the decision of this Court referred to by the Government Pleader and clarified the issue against the petitioners.