COMMISSIONER Vs. BANARAS CHEMICALS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a case stated under section 11(1) of the U.P. Sales Tax Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act). The question referred is :

(2.) THE material facts are these : The assessee is a manufacturer and dealer in sodium silicate and washing soap. The short question for consideration is whether sodium silicate is a chemical within the meaning of item No. 7 of the aforesaid notification issued under the powers conferred by section 3-A of the Act. The item reads : "Chemicals of all kinds." The assessing authority and the Judge (Appeals) considered sodium silicate (water glass) to be a chemical and therefore falling within the mischief of item No. 7 of the said notification. The Judge (Revisions), however, took the view that sodium silicate though in its widest connotation might be a chemical yet when considered by the use to which it is put in India, which according to him, was only as a filler in the manufacture of soap, it cannot be treated as a chemical. Further, it was held, that sodium silicate is not a chemical compound but only a mixture. Hence this reference at the instance of the Commissioner of Sales Tax.

(3.) IN Thorpe's Dictionary of Applied Chemistry, Volume X, the uses of "sodium silicate" given are :