TATA AIRCRAFT LIMITED Vs. MEMBER BOARD OF REVENUE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this reference under Section 21(1). of the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941, the only question referred to this Court is :- Whether sales tax is a tax only on the sale of goods or is it a tax also on the commodity sold?

(2.) On the frame of the question it is hardly necessary, to refer to the facts of the case but a short synopsis thereof is given as follows. The assessee Tata Aircraft Limited had got itself registered as a dealer under the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941, hereinafter referred to as the Act. On the allegation that the assessee had failed to submit returns for the four quarters ending on 31st March, 1948, in time, the Commercial Tax Officer, 24 Parganas, issued two notices on it under Sections 11 and 14 of the Act for production of the books of account etc., before the said authority. The assessee submitted returns sometime afterwards claiming that no amount was payable by it for sales tax for the periods in question as it was not a dealer within the meaning of Section 2(c) of the Act. Ultimately the Assistant Commissioner assessed the assessee on the basis of taxable sales as estimated by the Commercial Tax Officer rejecting the contention that it was not a dealer. The assessee filed appeals against the assessment orders before the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes and produced a copy of the agreement entered into by it with the Government of India. According 'to the assessee it had only taken part in the disposal of some surplus stores of the Government of the United States of America and the United States Army taken up by the Government of India for sale on the terms and conditions specified in the agreement. The Commissioner of Commercial Taxes held that though the goods belonged to the Government of India the actual sale transactions were put through by the assessee in its own name and that so long as the assessee sold the goods, no matter to whom the property in them belonged, the assessee was liable to pay sales tax as a dealer under the Act. Against this order the assessee filed two revision petitions before the Board of Revenue under Section 21(3) of the Act contending that no tax could be levied under the Government of India Act, 1935, on property belonging to the Central Government. The Board rejected this contention. The assessee then filed two petitions before the Board requiring it to refer to this Court certain questions of law alleged to have arisen out of the Board's order dated 10th January, 1953. The Board heard the assessee and referred to this Court the sole question set forth above.

(3.) It will be noted that although questions might have been raised as to (a) whether the assessee was a dealer in the facts and circumstances of this case within the meaning of the Act, or (b) whether even if the assessee was a dealer any tax was payable by it by reason of the fact that the property in the goods lay in the Government of India, no such problems were posed before the Court and we are not called upon to go into them.