STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH Vs. DURGA WINES INDUSTRIES

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This revision case is filed by the State to revise the orders of the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal, Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad passed in T.A. No. 928 of 1993 dated 21/02/1997.

(2.) The short question that arises for consideration in this " revision case is whether the "cartons" in which the bottles of liquor are packed for the purpose of transportation should be taxed at the rate applicable to the container or at the rates of the contents, viz., the liquor. The Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal has distinguished the packing material like bottles in which the liquors are packed from the packing material like carton in which the liquor packed in bottles are kept for the purpose of transportation. It came to the conclusion that the secondary packing was used for the convenience of transport and such packing material does not reach the ultimate consumer along with goods and so it cannot be treated as packing material sold along with contents without there being any sale of packing material as such. In coming to the conclusion the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal followed it's own decision in the case of United Breweries Ltd. v. State of Andhra Pradesh (1990) 11 APSTJ 95.

(3.) Having heard the learned Government Pleader at length, we are of the view that the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal has reached to the correct conclusion; the cartons in which the liquor bottles are kept for the purpose of transportation cannot be equated with the packing material wherein the liquor is packed. Such secondary packing material can only be treated as container and will have to be taxed under entry 19 of the First Schedule to the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act 1957. In this view of the matter, the tax revision case is dismissed. No costs.