TAN INDIA LIMITED Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) DESIRABLE it is, to dispose of these revisions- the former and latter ones, being filed at the instance of the assessee and the Revenue respectively-by a common order, inasmuch as the points or issues involved are common relatable to the assessment year 1988-89.

(2.) THE assessee-company Tvl. Tan India Limited, Kumarapa-layam are manufacturers of cement. THE cement manufactured by them, it is said, are sold intra-State and inter-State. THE head office of the assessee-company is located at Kumarapalayam. It is having its factory at Katterikuppam. It is having a branch at Palghat in Kerala State.

(3.) THE Tamil Nadu Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal (Additional Bench), Coimbatore-18 (for short "Tribunal"), on further appeal, found that all the transactions, excepting the despatches effected in favour of the three identifiable ultimate buyers in Kerala, namely, (i) Memory Traders, Veradiyam, (ii) P.M. Abdul Rahman, Ponani and (iii) O.K. Mustafa, Chempecheri found to be inter-State sales exigible to tax at appropriate rate, as found by the authorities below, namely, the assessing officer and AAC. He, however, found that the despatches effected to those three traders, as stated above, represent only "stock transfer to its branch at Palghat" and, therefore, not exigible to tax, under CSTA. THE rationale or reasoning given by the Tribunal for holding that the despatches effected to the three traders as stated above represented only branch transfer, is that these despatches were not directly effected to the said traders but on the contrary, the despatches were effected to them through the branch office at Palghat and that is all and nothing further. THE Tribunal, however, reduced the penalty to fifty per cent of the tax due.