Telangana High Court
The Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal vs M/S.Chaitanya Electricals on 8 January, 2024
Author: P.Sam Koshy
Bench: P.Sam Koshy, N.Tukaramji
THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE P.SAM KOSHY
AND
THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE N.TUKARAMJI
TAX REVISION CASE No.156 of 2008
ORDER :
(per Hon'ble Sri Justice P.SAM KOSHY) The present Tax Revision Case has been filed by the petitioner/appellant against the judgment passed by the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal (for short, 'the Tribunal') in Tribunal Appeal No.889 of 2005, decided on 17.03.2008.
2. Heard Sri V. Rajeshwar Rao, learned Special Standing Counsel for Commercial Taxes appearing for the petitioner and Sri M.V.S. Sridhar, learned counsel for the respondent.
3. Vide the said impugned order, the Tribunal had allowed the appeal of the assessee/respondent and set aside the order of the Additional Commissioner (CT), Hyderabad, dated 05.05.2005.
4. The point for consideration in the present Tax Revision Case is whether the goods purchased by the assessee from outside the State of Andhra Pradesh (as it then stood) and brought into the territories of Andhra Pradesh for the purpose of using the same in the works contract executed by the assessee within the State of Andhra Pradesh would constitute a sale in the course of interstate trade or commerce 2 under Section 3(a) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 (for short, 'CST Act, 1956').
5. After due consideration of all the contentions on either side, the Tribunal taking into consideration the various decisions in its operative part had held as under:
"Thus, we find from the reading of the above passage that the Hon'ble High Court while interpreting the validity of III Proviso, did not make any distinction between standard goods or non-standard goods and has also regarded the Head Office and Branch Office of a Company as the same judicial personality. The ratio of their interception applies squarely to the case in hand where the goods were purchased from outside the State of Andhra Pradesh in pursuance of a contract and were moved to the works contract site for execution of works contract. Central Sales Tax has been paid on those goods. These are all admitted facts. However, Form- C in respect of these goods was issued by the contractor himself. We are of the opinion that just because Form-C was not signed by the contractee and was signed by the contractor himself will not make any difference to the interstate nature of the sale.
8. The Hon'ble A.P. High Court also held a similar view in a later judgment dated.9.7.2003 in the case of State of Andhra Pradesh Vs. State of Andhra Pradesh Vs. Dwaraka Prasad Radhey Ramalal reported in (2004) 39 APSTJ 23. The Hon'ble A.P. High Court while pronouncing this judgment also referred to the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Builders Association of India & Others v. Union of India & Others 73 STC 370 and held that materials purchased from outside the State to fulfill contractual obligations involved in execution of works contracts in the State of Andhra Pradesh assumed the character of interstate sales and turnovers arising out of their sales cannot be subjected to tax by the State of Andhra Pradesh. In view of these judgments, we cannot agree with the views of the revisional authority that in the instant case there are two sets of transactions one at the hands of ex-state dealers who sold the goods to the assessee company and the other from the assessee company to the contractee. This in our opinion would not be a harmonious reading of the observations of the Hon'ble A.P. High Court in the above-mentioned said cases.3
9. In view of the above, we are of the opinion that the orders of the revisional authority need to be set-aside and are accordingly set-aside."
It is this judgment which has been subjected to challenge by way of the present Tax Revision Case.
6. In the course of the deliberations, the Division Bench of this Court in the case of M/s. Larsen and Toubro Ltd. Vs. State of Andhra Pradesh 1 has already considered and laid to rest the said issue. In the course of deciding the said issue, the High Court has reached to the conclusion that the transactions in the nature of an interstate sale are not exigible to tax under the works contract in the State of Andhra Pradesh. The decision in the case of M/s. Larsen and Toubro Ltd. (supra) was based upon the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of K.G. Khosla & Co. (P) Ltd. Vs. Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Madras Division, Madras 2 and also in the case of Oil India Limited Vs. Superintendent of Taxes 3.
7. Relying upon the decision in the case of M/s. Larsen and Toubro Ltd.(supra), there was yet another decision passed by this Court in M/s. Patel Engineering Ltd., Vs. The Assistant 1 (2016) 88 VST 422 (T&A.P. HC) = (2015) 64 taxmann.com 288 2 177 STC 473 (SC) 3 35 STC 445 4 Commissioner (CT) and Ors. 4, whereby the writ petition filed by the assessee was allowed and the matter stood remanded back to the authorities concerned for a fresh consideration, setting aside the previous order passed by the Revisional Authority.
8. Given the aforesaid judicial precedents from this High Court and also considering the issue raised in the present Tax Revision Case being similar if not identical, therefore the present Tax Revision Case would stand squarely decided in terms of the order passed by the Division Bench of this Court in the case of M/s. Larsen and Toubro Ltd. (1 supra).
9. The present Tax Revision Case therefore being devoid of merits, deserves to be and is accordingly, rejected. No order as to costs.
Consequently, miscellaneous petitions pending if any, shall stand closed.
_________________ P.SAM KOSHY, J __________________ N.TUKARAMJI, J Date: 08.01.2024 GSD 4 WP No 18279 of 2022 dated 28/09/2021 of High Court for the State of Telangana