COMMISSIONER SALES TAX Vs. VINOD COAL SYNDICATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is the Commissioner's revision under Section 11(1) of the U.P. Sales Tax Act. The respondent-assessee, M/s. Vinod Coal Syndicate, deals in coal. For the assessment year 1975-76, the assessee disclosed his taxable turnover at Rs. 6,16,629.90. The assessing authority did not accept the accounts and the disclosed turnover for various reasons. The main reason was that the assessee had not included the amount of freight inward in the turnover of sales of coal. The assessing authority hence made a best judgment assessment determining the taxable turnover at Rs. 7,20,000.

(2.) The assessee's appeal having failed he went up in revision. The Additional Judge (Revisions), Varanasi, accepted the assessee's contention and held that since freight charges were paid by the principals directly, the same were not liable to be included in the sales of coal. As a result the disclosed turnover has been accepted. Aggrieved, the Commissioner has filed the present revision.

(3.) Before taking up the contentions of the parties it would not be out of place to mention the modus operandi of the assessee's business. The assessee used to procure orders for supply of coal. He imported coal from the collieries which are situated outside Uttar Pradesh against form XXXI. The coal was brought by trucks engaged by the assessee and on his instructions the trucks were unloaded at the business premises of the principals concerned. The cash memo issued by the assessee mentioned the price of coal, his commission and sales tax. The amount of freight inward is not mentioned in the cash memo. Sometimes it so happened that the intending purchaser refused to take delivery of the coal. That coal was unloaded at the assessee's own depot and inward freight paid in respect thereof was included by the assessee in the sale price of coal. There is no dispute in the present case in regard to the out-turn in respect of such sales. The dispute is confined to the includibility of freight in the sale price of coal unloaded by the carriers directly and the freight inward in respect whereof was paid by the purchasers concerned.