THOMSON PRESS INDIA LIMITED Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) M/s. Thomson Press (India) Ltd. , carries on the business of printing at their printing press at Faridabad since 1967. It is registered both under the Central Sales Tax Act and Haryana General Sales Tax Act. It does printing jobs received by it from Government departments, statutory corporations and business organisations. According to the need it has been printing all types of forms of books in various sizes, shapes and designs. During assessment proceedings for the assessment year 1969-70, the stand of the company before the Assessing Authority, Faridabad, was that the sales of items like booklets, brochures, annual reports folders and UNESCO couriers are covered by entry No. 22 of Schedule B of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948 (for short "the 1948 Act"), pertaining to "books" and as such the same were exempt from tax. The same was the plea with regard to the assessment years 1970-71 to 1972-73. For the years 1973-74 to 1975-76 the same argument was raised as by then the Haryana General Sales Tax Act, 1973 (for short "the Haryana Act"), had become applicable and the exemption was sought under entry No. 8 of Schedule B of that Act.

(2.) THE case for the assessment year 1969-70 came up first before the Assessing Authority and he rejected the contention of the assessee and subjected all items to tax vide order dated 30th March, 1976. For the year 1969-70 the matter was taken up in appeal. Before the appellate authority, the assessee relied upon decision of the Allahabad High Court in Commissioner of Sales Tax, U. P. , Lucknow v. Indo Arts [1969] 24 STC 342, and a judgment of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in Govindaswamy Binding Works v. State of Andhra Pradesh [1972] 29 STC 219, for the proposition that the items like brochures, booklets, magazines and folders and all kinds of books including account books are covered by the term "books". The appellate authority accepted the contention and by order dated 22nd December, 1976, held that the items in question are covered by the term "books" in entry 22 of Schedule B of the Punjab Act, 1948 and were exempt from tax. For the subsequent six years, the matter came up before the Assessing Authority on different dates and by separate orders of different dates, the cases for the six years were decided on the basis of the aforesaid decision of the appellate authority and it was held that the assessee was exempt from tax. As a result the assessee became entitled to refund of tax paid in excess.

(3.) THE Joint Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Haryana, took up the matter in suo motu revision against the order of the appellate authority for the year 1969-70; and of the Assessing Authority for the subsequent six years. The assessee challenged the jurisdiction of the Joint Excise and Taxation Commissioner for revising the orders and also supported the decisions of the appellate authority as well as of the Assessing Authority, which were based on the decision of the appellate authority. The revisional authority rejected the contention of the assessee and on merits held that the sales of folder, brochures, annual reports, souvenir and booklets are not exempt from the levy of tax under the Punjab and Haryana Sales Tax Acts and were liable to tax. Accordingly, by common order dated 11th May, 1981, the order of the appellate authority in the first case and that of the Assessing Authority in the subsequent six cases were set aside and the matter was remanded to the Assessing Authority, Faridabad, with a direction to work out the tax liability in the light of the observations made in his order and to realise the tax due. Against the aforesaid order; the assessee filed seven separate appeals before the Sales Tax Tribunal, Haryana. The Tribunal after considering the matter, rejected all the appeals by common order dated 20th August, 1982. On the assessee's applications, the Tribunal has referred the following common question for opinion of this Court for all the seven assessment years and the references have been registered in this Court as G. S. T. R. Nos. 16 to 22 of 1983. Whether, on facts and circumstances of the case, UNESCO courier, folders, booklets, brochures and annual reports printed and sold by the petitioner are not covered under the word 'books' in entry No. 22 of Schedule B of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, which corresponds to the entry No. 8 of Schedule B of the Haryana General Sales Tax Act.