MALAYALEE STORES Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this sales tax revision, the question is whether sale of eucalyptus trees is sale of firewood. If it is, it would be exempt from taxation. Sale of firewood is exempted from sales tax under the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959. The exemption is granted by the State Government in exercise of a power in that regard conferred by the statute. The order of exemption is notified in the Gazette under Notification No. II(1)/Rev/386(g)/74 dated 4th March, 1974. The notification simply says that the Governor is pleased to exempt from sales tax "firewood".

(2.) THE claim for exemption under this notification arises in this way : The assessee is a forest coupe contractor. In a forest auction the assessee purchased eucalyptus and other trees as a coupe. He felled the eucalyptus trees and sold them to one P. R. Lakshmi, who is described as a pulpwood contractor. The eucalyptus trees purchased by her were then cut to X size and also debarked. The timber pieces so fashioned were sold by her to Gwalior Rayons, describing the pieces as "pulpwood". Gwalior Rayons used these shaven chips of eucalyptus wood as raw material to manufacture rayon in their mills. The question is, whether the sale by the assessee, coupe contractor, Lakshmi is sale of "firewood" within the meaning of the notification for exemption. The notification does not define firewood. We feel that for such a word as this there need be no statutory definition.

(3.) A single shorthand expression was found convenient for being employed to denote all the trees in the coupe, save certain varieties. The expression tended to avoid a repetition of mention of the wide varieties of trees included in the contract every time a clause in the contract carried a reference to them. Quite apart from the expression "fuel coupe" being a term of the draftsman's art in this particular contract form, the test of what the subject-matter of a sale is cannot ordinarily be concluded by any nomenclature that the parties choose to use in their documents, but must be decided on the basis of what, in reality and in substance, is the type of goods which fits in with the description given in the statute or in the statutory instrument, as the case may be.