RAM KRISHNA KALWANT RAI Vs. STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) According to entry 1 of the Second Schedule to the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, manganese, including manganese ore, is exigible to sales tax on the point of purchase by the last dealer, who buys in the State.

(2.) The question for decision in this case is, whether the petitioner is the last purchaser of manganese ore within the State of Andhra Pradesh. The relevant facts are the following : The petitioner, a dealer at Delhi, had a permit for exporting certain quantities of manganese ore. Export of manganese ore has to be effected only through M.M.T.C. The Supreme Court has held in Murarilal Sarawagi v. State of Andhra Pradesh [1977] 39 STC 294 (SC) that M.M.T.C. is not a mere canalising agency. It held that in every case of export of manganese ore the sale must be to the M.M.T.C., and that it is the M.M.T.C., which in its turn sells the same to the foreign buyer, though as a fact there may be a direct agreement between the Indian seller and the foreign buyer.

(3.) Certain quantities of manganese ore was available with one R. B. S. S. Durga Prasad, a party at Tumsar within the State of Maharashtra. This quantity of manganese ore was shipped through Visakhapatnam Port in the name of and on the account of the petitioner in pursuance of an agreement entered into by the petitioner with the M.M.T.C. at its Delhi office. The shipping arrangements were made by the shipping agents at Visakhapatnam acting under the instructions of the petitioner. The foreign buyer was a Belgian party and the record discloses that the price for the manganese ore was directly remitted to the Tumsar party.