DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF SALES TAX Vs. KARIM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS Tax Revision Case relates to the year 1962-63 and it arises from a common order of the Kerala Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal, Trivandrum , for the said period as well as for 1958 to 1962. The question which arises for our consideration is whether the Kerala Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal was justified in holding that the assessee's purchase turnover of cashew kernel during the period from 21-6-1962 to 31-3-1963 was, even in the absence of declarations in form No. 25, exempt from tax.

(2.) IN K. A. Karim v. Sales-tax Appellate Tribunal, kerala, Trivandrum ([1963] 14 S. T. C. 36) this Court held that the purchases of kernel did not attract purchase tax. This decision was rendered on 21-6-1962. In the light of this decision, the assessee rightly believed that the cashew kernels were not liable to tax at the purchase point. However, the position was altered retrospectively by the Kerala General Sales Tax (Levy and Validation) Act, 1965, hereinafter called the Act. S. 3 of this Act provided: "3. Liability of dealers for tax on the purchase of copra and cashewnut kernel - (1) Every dealer shall be liable to pay for each year during the period commencing on and from the 1st day of April 1958, and ending with 31st day of March, 1963, a tax on his turnover relating to the purchase of copra or cashewnut kernel for that year at the rate of four paise for every rupee in such turnover : Provided Provided further that no tax shall be levied under this section on copra or cashewnut kernel if a tax has already been levied on the purchase of coconut or cashewnut out of which such copra or kernel is produced. Accordingly tax was retrospectively imposed on the purchase of cashewnut kernel, but exemption from tax was granted if tax had already been levied on the purchase of cashewnut out of which the kernel was produced.