- (1.) The appellant/assessee is the manufacture of bricks and tiles. It is registered under the Karnataka Sales Tax Act (hereinafter referred to as "the Act") and is paying sales tax on the goods manufactured and sold by it. For the relevant Assessment Year i.e. 1993-94, the appellant/assessee filed its sales tax return in respect of the roofing tiles as well as decorative roofing tiles. As per the appellant since roofing tiles are contained in Entry 8(iii) of Part 'T' of Second Schedule to the Act, attracting 5% duty thereupon, the aforesaid goods were excisable to the duty at the rate of 5%. The Assessing Officer, however, was of the opinion that the item in question would not be treated as "roofing tiles", but comes within the description of "other tiles" in the aforesaid entry and on that basis, he levied the sales tax at 15%. This view has been upheld by the High Court as well in the impugned judgment dated 18.11.2004, against which the present appeal is preferred by the assessee.
(2.) In order to appreciate and decide the controversy, in the first instance, we reproduce Entry 8 of Part 'T' of the Second Schedule of the Act which reads as under: JUDGEMENT_104_LAWS(SC)3_2016_1.html
(3.) A reading of the aforesaid Entry would indicate that in sub-heading (i), (ii) and (iii) there are specific kinds of tiles mentioned therein which attract a particular percentage of sales tax mentioned against those. If the goods/tiles are not covered by sub-entries (i),(ii) & (iii), then the residual entry namely sub-entry (iv) of Entry 8 would be applicable. The reading of the aforesaid entry would also demonstrate that insofar as roofing tiles, other than country tiles are concerned, they are specifically included in sub-entry (iii) in which 5% duty is payable for the period 1.3.1988 to 31.3.1995 and from 1.4.1995 duty has been reduced to 4%. Since the relevant Assessment Year in the instance case is 1993-94, if the goods manufactured by the assessee fall in this sub-entry, it would attract sales tax at the rate of 5%.;