- (1.) The assessee deals in leather, leather belt and leather cutting. Leather belts were brought to tax at the rate of 6 per cent on the footing that they fall within the ambit of the words "mill-stores and hardware" as occurring at item No. 3 of Notification No. ST-4124/X- 950(12)-1967 dated 31st July, 1967. The contention of the assessee that they should be taxed as leather goods was accepted on appeal and the revision filed by the Commissioner of Sales Tax failed.
(2.) The dispute in this reference is as to whether leather beltings are comprised in the term "mill-stores and hardware". The notification of 31st July, 1967, has been issued under Section 3-A and item No. 3 thereof is to the following effect: Mill-stores and hardware.
(3.) The import of this entry has been considered on a number of occasions by this Court, viz., in the case of Commissioner of Sales Tax, U. P. v. Aftab Husain Imdad Husain [1970] 25 S.T.C. 471, Fine Trading Corporation v. Commissioner of Sales Tax, U. P. [1970] 25 S.T.C. 474, Commissioner of Sales Tax v. Kanpur Udyog Bhandar [1970] 26 S.T.C. 431 and in a Full Bench decision in the case of Commissioner of Sales Tax, U. P. v. Ram Niwas Puskar Dutt [1971] 28 S.T.C. 736 (F.B.). It has been held that as both mill-stores and hardware had been coupled together in a single entry, they refer to allied trades. "Mill-stores" consisted of items like small tools and spare parts of machinery and that hardware referred to small item of base metal particularly building materials like huts, hinges, rivets, etc. The view taken was that all the items falling within this entry must have something common to each other.;