TELEVISTA ELECTRONICS P LTD Vs. COMMISSIONER OF SALES TAX

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS sales tax reference has been made by the Appellate Tribunal, Sales Tax, Delhi, at the instance of the assessee, M/s. Televista Electronics (P) Ltd., Okhla Industrial Estate, New Delhi. The questions that have been referred for the opinion of this Court pertain to the assessment year 1974-75, and are as follows : 1. Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was right in holding that television sets were covered by entry No. 4 of the First Schedule appended to the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941, as extended to Delhi ? 2. Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal was right in holding that T.V. cabinets, decorative panel, turn knobs, printed circuit boards and boards were component parts and accessories of "wireless reception instruments and apparatus" within the meaning of these terms in entry No. 4 of the First Schedule appended to the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941, as extended to Delhi ?

(2.) THE dispute primarily is as to the rate of sales tax, chargeable in respect to one category of finished goods marketed by the assessee, namely, television sets, the assessee being engaged in the manufacture of T.V. sets, tape-recorders, calculators, calculators and transistors, etc. THE statement of facts further reveals that the assessee being a registered dealer, purchased certain parts required for the manufacture of T.V. sets against the registration certificates without payment of requisite sales tax. THE liability to pay sales tax on these items arose because of the provisions of second proviso to section 5(2)(ii) of the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941, as extended to Delhi (for short "the Act"), for the reason that the parts which the assessee purchased on the strength of the registration certificates could earn exemption from sales tax only if they were intended for resale in the Union Territory of Delhi or had been purchased for use as raw material in manufacture of goods, in the Union Territory of Delhi. It appears that a certain number of T.V. sets, for the manufacture whereof parts as enumerated in question No. 2 had been used, were sent for sale outside the Union Territory of Delhi and for this reason the department raised the demand by invoking the provisions of the second proviso to section 5(2) of the Act, which lays down that in case the goods are not utilised by the registered dealer for the purpose declared while making tax-free purchases, these shall form part of taxable turnover of the purchasing dealer. This is how the liability to pay sales tax has fallen on the assessee, in respect to television cabinets, decorative panels, turn knobs, printed circuit boards and boards, etc.

(3.) A television has also been defined, in this dictionary, to be an apparatus with a screen and loudspeaker for receiving broadcast, and wireless to mean radio communications as also broadcast by wireless.