KOTAK AND COMPANY Vs. STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS tax revision case is preferred against the order of the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal, Andhra Pradesh, in Tribunal Appeal No. 392 of 1960 on its file.

(2.) THE facts necessary for an appreciation of the contentions of the petitioner are briefly these. The assessee M/s. Kotak and Co., at Adoni, are dealers in cotton. For the assessment year 1958-59, the petitioner was assessed to sales tax by the assessing authority (Commercial Tax Officer, Kurnool) on a turnover of Rs. 8,50,053-74 nP. and the said order having been confirmed by the Deputy Commissioner, Anantapur, the matter was carried in appeal to the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal, Hyderabad, which confirmed the orders of the departmental authorities. Against that decision the above revision was preferred. A number of contentions appear to have been raised before the Tribunal. But the learned counsel for the petitioner, Sri C. Kondaiah, made only two submissions, viz., (1) that the Tribunal ought to have allowed by way of deduction Rs. 1,10,443-57 nP. from the taxable turnover in respect of the sales of cotton seeds made by the assessee locally, and (2) that the Tribunal erred in treating Rs. 2,06,397-31 nP., as re-sales and not granting the exemption thereon.

(3.) SCHEDULE II to the Act enumerates the goods in respect of which a single point sales tax only is leviable under section 5(3)(a), and item 23 therein is to the effect that cotton seeds are liable to levy at the point of first sale in the State at the rate of 2 naye Paise in the rupee. Section 6 of the Act, dealing with the tax in respect of declared goods, lays down that, "Notwithstanding anything contained in section 5, the sales or purchases of declared goods by a dealer shall be liable to tax at the rate, and only at the point of sale or purchase specified against each in the Fourth Schedule, irrespective of the quantum of his turnover in such goods; and the tax shall be assessed, levied and collected in such manner as may be prescribed." This section is obviously the charging section in respect of declared goods. Section 2(c) of the Central Sales Tax Act defines "declared goods" to mean goods declared under section 14 to be of special importance in inter-State trade or commerce. Section 14 of the Central Sales Tax Act enumerates certain goods to be of special importance in inter-State trade or commerce, and item (ii) therein is :- "(ii) cotton, that is to say, all kinds of cotton (indigenous or imported) in its unmanufactured state, whether ginned or unginned, baled, pressed or otherwise, but not including cotton waste;"