BOMBAY TELEPHONE Vs. COMMISSIONER OF SALES TAX

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In all these references, the common questions of law raised and referred by the Maharashtra Sales Tax Tribunal read thus :

(2.) For the sake of convenience, we set out facts relevant to Sales Tax Reference No. 23 of 2008. Counsel for the parties agree that the decision in Sales Tax Reference No. 23 of 2008 would apply to all the remaining references.

(3.) The applicant ('assessee' for convenience) originally a Department of the Central Government (now a Corporation with effect from 1st April 1986), is engaged in the activity of providing telecommunication facilities in India and abroad. While providing the aforesaid facilities, the assessee occasionally sold old telephones, directories and discarded materials not required by the assessee Neither the main activity of providing telecommunication services nor the incidental activity of selling scrap materials were considered as a business activity and accordingly the assessee was not registered as a dealer under the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959 ('BST Act' for short).