DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURAL INCOME-TAX AND SALES TAX QUILON Vs. KERALA PREMO PIPE FACTORY LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this revision petition against the decision of the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal, the question to be considered is whether the turnover of the petitioner company consisting of the price of sales of concrete pipes amounting to Rs. 11,76,395.14 is liable to payment of sales tax at 5 per cent or at 3 per cent only.

(2.) The respondent company is the Kerala Premo Pipe Factory Ltd., a Government undertaking. The main business of the factory consists of the manufacture of the prestressed and reinforced concrete pipes of various sizes and length. During the assessment year 1965-66 they manufactured 700 mm. pipes, 16ft. in length and weighing 1 1/2 tons. These pipes are put to multifarious uses, namely, for pillars for channels, for engineering and construction purposes, for water supply schemes, road culverts, under tunnels, spouts of irrigation channels, cross masonry works, drainage schemes, etc. During the assessment year the factory had a gross and net turnover of Rs. 11,94,086.69 and Rs. 11,76,395.14 respectively. There is no controversy over the turnover. But, according to the Sales Tax Officer, the sale of the manufactured products fell within Item 35 of the Ist Schedule to the Kerala Sales Tax Act. This levy was disputed. Item 35 of the Ist Schedule of the Act (as it stood prior to the Kerala General Sales Tax (Amendment) Act 5 of 1967) runs thus:

(3.) The only question in whether these products can be classified under Item 35 of 1st Schedule. The term "water supply and sanitary fittings" has not been defined anywhere in the Act or in the Rules. This term therefore has to be interpreted and understood in a popular and commercial sense. In Commissioner of Sales Tax v. Jaswant Singh Charan Singh (19 STC 469), the Supreme Court observed: