G.K.GRANITES OORAKKAD, KOZHAKKAMBALAM PO Vs. STATE OF KERALA REPRESENTED BY THE SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Two questions arise from the order of the Tribunal; as to (i) whether the activity of quarrying carried on by the petitioner/assessee can be termed "mining" as referred to in section 8(2) (b) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 (for brevity "the CST Act") and (ii) whether after the introduction of the goods and services tax enactments and the restrictive meaning of goods adopted under the CST Act, the petitioner/assessee can be allowed to have continued; HSD, in his certificate of registration under the CST Act, enabling him to claim concessional rate for the inter-State purchases made.

(2.) Admittedly, after the implementation of the goods and services tax regime the definition of goods under Entry 54 of List II of the VIIth Schedule of the Constitution of India was amended, to restrict it to specific petroleum products and alcoholic liquor for human consumption. The Assessing Officer by Annexure A order, revoked the authorization granted to the assessee to effect inter-State purchase of "fuel elements-all fuels" and deleted the said entry from the certificate of registration granted under the CST Act. The returns filed in Form No.10 of the Kerala Value Added Tax Act, 2003(for brevity "KVAT Act") for the months of July, Sept. and Oct. 2017 were hence rejected.

(3.) The assessee was in first appeal which was rejected by Annexure B. A second appeal also proved unsuccessful. The Tribunal looked at the definition of goods as amended and now existing under Sec. 2(d) of the CST Act as also the distinction between "mining" and "quarrying" as understood in common parlance. The assessee had claimed that a company Indian Rare Earths Ltd., was allowed to be continued to have the benefit under the CST Act of a concessional rate for inter-State purchases of HSD fuel used in their mining activity. The Tribunal looked at the dictionary meaning of 'mining' and 'minerals' and found that mining involves getting valuable or useful mineral from the earth; for example coal, diamond and gold. A mineral was given the meaning tin, salt or sulphur found naturally in rock and earth. It was hence held that quarrying granite metals is entirely different from mining of minerals. We immediately note our difference of opinion to the said finding even going by the definitions as extracted by the Tribunal from the Collins Dictionary. Granite metal is also valuable and useful and is also found naturally in the earth. Hence even going by the definition as extracted by the Tribunal, it cannot be found that granite metal is not a product of mining or is not included in the definition of a mineral. The Tribunal seems to have been more concerned about the chemical combination rather than the clear meaning as decipherable from the extracts. The extracted definitions also did not provide an exhaustive list of the minerals. The extracts made by the Tribunal does not provide a safe guide for interpretation.