Shiveshwar Prasad Sinha, J. - (1.) This is a reference under Section 33(3) of the Bihar Sales Tax Act, 1959, on the following questions: (1) Whether in the facts and circumstances of the case and on a true construction of the contract document between the S.T.C. and the H.S.L. read with the contract between the S.T.C. and their seller (the mine owners), the Tribunal is right in holding that the State of Bihar is not legally entitled to levy Central sales tax on the sales effected by the S.T.C. to the H.S.L. to the extent that certificates in forms E-l/E-2 are produced on proper and sufficient opportunity being afforded for the purpose ? (2) Whether the order of remand passed by the Tribunal for allowing the opposite party sufficient opportunity to furnish to the assessing officer in the prescribed manner certificates in forms E-l/E-2 duly filled and signed by the registered dealer, from whom the goods were purchased, the containing the prescribed particulars and for modifying the assessment after taking into consideration the said certificates, is valid in law ? (The abbreviations "S.T.C." stands for State Trading Corporation of India Ltd. and "H.S.L." stands for Hindustan Steel Ltd.). Both these shall hereinafter be referred to in the same abbreviated form.
(2.) The S.T.C. is a registered dealer under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 (hereinafter referred to as the Act), bearing registration No. SG-575-(c) under the Chaibasa sub-circle of the commercial taxes department and deals in iron and manganese ore. The assessment year for which the assessment is in question is the year 1959-60, the period of assessment being 1st April, 1959t to 31st March, 1960. The dealer S.T.C. obtained a gross turnover of Rs. 38,24,724.44 during the relevant year from supply of iron ore to the H.S.L., which also has been held to be a registered dealer. The claim of the S.T.C. before the assessing officer was that it had purchased iron ore from certain mine owners in Bihar on f.o.r. (free on rail) loading-station-basis for selling it to the H.S.L. for their units in Durgapur in West Bengal, Bhilai in Madhya Pradesh and Rourkela in Orissa. The sales by the mine owners to the S.T.C. were inter-State sales within the meaning of Section 3 of the Central Sales Tax Act and the sales by the S.T.C. to the H.S.L. were the subsequent inter-State sales with respect to the same goods during the same movement and as such the subsequent sales were exempt from taxation by virtue of the provisions of Sub-section (2) of Section 6 of the Act.
(3.) The assessing officer, accepted the gross turnover returned by the S.T.C. but did not accept the claim for exemption and held that the sales by the mine owners to the S.T.C. and the sales by the S.T.C. to the H.S.L. were distinct and separate transactions. The first was an intra-State sale and the next was an inter-State trade sale. The sales made by the S.T.C. to the H.S.L. were, therefore, taxable. Since, however, the declaration in form 'C had been produced from the H.S.L. in respect of a part of the turnover, that part was taxed at 1 per cent, of the turnover and the rest was taxed at 7 per cent, of the turnover. The S.T.C. having failed in its appeal before the Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Ranchi, filed a revision application before the Board of Revenue which transferred the matter to the Sales Tax Tribunal, the latter having been formed by that time to deal with revisions against appellate orders.;