(1.) THIS is an application under section 12-B of the Sales tax Act to revise the order of the Tribunal. Two questions arise for determination : (1) whether the Tribunal was right in holding that the turnover of Rs. 16, 718 was assessable to tax, and (2) whether the Tribunal was right in including in the assessable turnover, a sum of Rs. 7, 166-4-0 which was the estimated cost of the gunnies in which the petitioner, assessee, sold vegetables prior to the date of the notification in December, 1954.
(2.) THE turnover of Rs. 16, 718 represented the sale turnover of four items of vegetables. We find it convenient to refer to these vegetables by their Tamil names, the vegetables are indigenous. THE turnover was : Sales of karunai Rs. 8, 121, sales of senai Rs. 4, 001, sales of sembu Rs. 2, 968 and sales of sirukizangu Rs. 1, 628. Total Rs. 16, 718. THE question for consideration is whether these or any of these come within the scope of the expression "yam" as that expression is used in Notification No. 42 as it was amended in 1956. THE effect of that amendment in 1956 was to withdraw for yam the exemption that had been granted to vegetables from sales tax and make sales of yam taxable. THE Tribunal took the view that, in the absence of any statutory definition the normal English meaning, as can be gathered from the dictionary, should be given to yam, and all the four varieties mentioned above were of the tuberous variety. THE Tribunal took the view that each of the four items came within the scope of the word "yam. " We quite agree that in the absence of any statutory definition, the normal meaning the expression bears ought to be given to it; but we are here dealing with vegetables with tamil names for which really there are no corresponding English equivalents, that is, English words which would convey something definite to Englishmen. THErefore the English dictionary meaning of the expression "yam", with or without reference to the botanical names, may not be a deciding factor in determining what to the rule-maker the expression yam meant, when the notification in question was issued. We have really to go by how the word "yam" has been understood in relation to the Tamil words by which the vegetables have been known from time immemorial. On a reference to the Tamil lexicon we find that the English equivalent for karunai is given as elephantyam. That was how karunai was understood very much earlier also because in Volume III of Maclean's Manual of the Administration of the Madras presidency at page 288, karunai is described as elephantyam. Again in the Tamil lexicon the word senai has been translated as arrow root, but in the description portion it is referred to as a species of karunai. THE utmost that can be said is that senai is another species of yam, whether it is specifically called elephantyam or not.