- Court
- Supreme Court of India
- Decided
- 21 January 1985
- Bench
- P. N. Bhagwati, Ranganath Misra
Headnote
Kerala General Sal~s Tax Act, Item 71 of First Schedui~-Liabili<yro "purbhase tax" as last purchase, w!ren arises--Rate of tax enhanud aft~r a ctrtafrr date-Goods in stock acqt.lr~d prlor to such date and sold subrequently In inter-state-trade or commerce-Whetlter revised rate of tax app/icuble.
The r~spondent-assessec had made certain purchases before 30th Juno, 1974 and sold them subsequently io the course of inter-state trad.: or commerce. Tbc rate of purchase tax under Item 71 of the First Schedule to tbe Kerala Ocnoral Sales Tax was increased from 3% to 5% with effect from 1st July, 1974. Tho High Court held that tho purchases made 3%. by the respondent prior to 30th June, 1974 were taxable at the rate of
Dismissing the appeal to this Court, HELD : The assessee could not be made liable to tax on the PUrchases made by it prior to 30th June, 1974, unl.:ss the purchases acquired the quality of bcina last purchases in tbc State,. In the instant case there can bo no doubt that tbe assessee became liable to pay tax on the purchases made by it prior to 30th June, 19 74, as soon as it became determined though subsequent to 30th June, 1974, that these_ ~urchascs were .last pur. chases inside tbe State and were subsequently exog1ble to tax. Soncc tbc PUrchases look place before 30th Juno, 1974, ~~c assessee wo~ld bo h~ble to be taxed at the rate of 3% which wlls prcva•hng at the lime wbcn tbo PUrchases were made. {8$2P-H; 8S3B]
State of Madras v. T. NOI'ayauaswamf Naida <h. Anr., (1967] .3 S.C.R. 622, rcr~rred to.
s~aso Rubbers v. Stat~ of Kamla, 48 S.T.C. 2' 6• approved.
Civ.il Appeal No. 4160 of
CIVIL APPELLATB JUR~'iDICTJON :
. From the Judgment and Ord~r dated· 25.6.1984 of the High Court in T.R.C. No. 19 of l9iS4. K.crala PI ,;i)·. - V. J, Fra11cis for the Appellant.
T. M. Ansari, Markose Vellcipally and D. N. Misra for the Respondent.
Headnote as published in the Digital Supreme Court Reports by the Supreme Court of India. Paragraph references point to the judgment below.
Judgment
BHAGWATI, J. The sole question which arises for determination in this appeal is as to what is the rate at which the goods which had been purchased earlier and which were in stock with the assessee on 30-6·74 were assessable to purchase tax when the purchases were -·1 found to be last purchases as a result of events which took place sub-sequent to 30.6.1974. This question has become material since the rate of purchase tax was increased from 3% to 5% with effect from l st July, 1974. Now it is no• disputed in the present case that the. purchases of goods effected by the assessee prior to 30-6-74 were last purchases withi~ the State because the goods purchased which were in stock on 30-6-74 were subsequently sold by the assessee in the course of inter-state trade or commerce which means that they wert-not sold within the Stat'c and hence the assessee was clearly the last purchaser within the State and as such was Hable to pay purchase tax under Item 71 of the First Scheduk to the Kerala General Sales Tax Act. Equally it is clear that th:: assessee could not be made liable to tax on the purchases made by it prior to 30th June 1974, unless the purchases acquired the quality of being last purchases in the State. It was pointed out by this Court in State of Madraj v. Shri T. Nora· yanaswami Naidu & Anr.(l) when the assessee "files a return and declares the stock m . hand, the stock m . hand cannot b c 'dtohave
. d sm ·0 the nex ·t been acquned by last purchase because he may st1 .11 un o ds .. o asicssment year, sell it or he may consume it himself or the go~hc may be destroyed, etc. He would be entitled to claim bebfore tock -assessing authorities that the character of acqutsttloll · · · of t _ c s or . m hand was undcrmmcd; . . m the light . of subsequen t c, vents 1t o1aY e can .h may not become the last purchase inside the State. 1 ~ecame therefore be no doubt that the assessee in the prc~:nt ca;~th June. liable to pay tax on the purchases made by it pnor to t to 30th I 1974, as soon as it bccam" dettrmined though subscqucn h State June: 1974, that these purchases were last purchases 1 ·ns•de t c and were consequently exigible to tax.
(I (l) [1967] 3 S.C.R. 622.
i .
'1. . .• ·.. . .
But the-question remains as to what is the rate at which the assessee was liable to be taxed in respect of these purchases. Since the purchases took place before 30th June 1974, the assessee would, in our opinion, liable to be taxed at the rate prevailing at the time when the purchases were made and since the rate at the time was 3 %of the sale price, the High Court was right in taking the view that the pur- . chases made by the assessee prior to 30th June 1974 were taxable at the rate of 3%. We may point out that a similar view has lieen taken by the Kerala High Court in Seaso Rubbers v. State of Kerala(l). We find ourselves in agreement with the. reasoning adopted by the Full Bench of the .High Court in that case.
We accordingly reject the appeal but with no order as to costs. M.L;A. , Appeal dismissed
Source: Supreme Court of India, Digital Supreme Court Reports, via the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open dataset (CC BY 4.0). Text was extracted from the official PDF and may contain conversion errors. Check the official PDF before relying on it.