BURMAH SHELL OIL STORAGE AND DISTRIBUTING COMPANY OF INDIA LIMITED Vs. STATE OF MADRAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal against the judgment of our learned brother Veeraswami, J., declining to remove on certiorari the assessment made by the Commercial Tax Officer, Kanyakumari, which was ultimately confirmed by the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes. The material facts as emerge from the records are as follows : Messrs Burmah Shell Oil Storage and Distributing Company (appellants here) sold in 1957-58, 84, 200 gallons of petrol and 1, 70, 600 gallons of diesel oil to the State Transport Department, Nagercoil, for its own consumption pursuant to an indent for its requirements on Messrs Burmah Shell Oil Storage and Distributing Company at Trivandrum. On the directions of the Madras company, the Trivandrum depot supplied the motor spirit to the Transport Department at the pump located in the workshop at Nagercoil. The bills were issued by the Madras office and passed for payment by the Accounts Officer of the Transport Department at Madras. These sales were treated as retail sales within the State of Madras, exigible to tax under section 3(1) of the Madras Sales of Motor Spirit Taxation Act, 1939 (Act 6 of 1939), and the company was accordingly assessed to tax by the Commercial Tax Officer, Kanyakumari.

(2.) COMPLAINING against this assessment and contending that the sales were inter-State sales not subject to tax under the Madras Sales of Motor Spirit Taxation Act, 1939, the company preferred an appeal to the Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes but the same was rejected. The revision carried by the company to the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes proved unsuccessful. Subsequently the jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution was invoked to quash the assessment. As observed earlier, our learned brother Veeraswami, J., dismissed the petition being of the opinion that the sales were intra-State sales and as such came within the purview of the Madras Sales of Motor Spirit Taxation Act, 1939.In this appeal against the judgment of our learned brother, it is maintained by Sri V. Thyagarajan that as the indents were placed at Trivandrum and the supplies were made from the Trivandrum depot, the transactions partook the character of inter-State sales and as such fell outside the scope of the Act. In support of this proposition, learned counsel cited two decisions of the Supreme Court, State Trading Corporation of India Ltd. v. State of Mysore and Cement Marketing Co. v. State of Mysore We do not think that neither of these two cases lend support to the contention raised on behalf of the appellants. Both of them were cases in which the sales occasioned the movement of goods across the State borders.

(3.) IT is immaterial to the State Transport Department wherefrom the stocks came. IT should also be remembered that it is only on the direction issued by the appellants that the spirit was brought in the appellants' lorries as their own property and pumped into their storage tanks. IT may be mentioned here that the bills were issued by the Madras office and passed for payment by the Accounts Officer of the Transport Department at Madras. In these circumstances, it is difficult to accede to the proposition that these intra-State sales will be converted into inter-State sales for the reasons adduced by the appellants. We are therefore unable to disagree with our learned brother in his decision.In the above circumstances, the appeal is dismissed with costs. Advocate's fees Rs. 250.