Madras High Court
State Of Tamil Nadu vs Toshiba Anand Batteries Ltd. on 22 October, 1991
Author: A.S. Anand
Bench: A.S. Anand
JUDGMENT Dr. A.S. Anand, C.J.
1. The Revenue is aggrieved of the order of the Tamil Nadu Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal (Main Bench), Madras, dated September 15, 1982 and has come up in revision before us.
2. The dispute in this revision petition relates to the turnover of Rs. 1,89,065.55 representing handling charges. The case of the assessees before the statutory authorities, including the Tribunal, was that the handling charges had been agreed to be collected separately from the customers and the same included loading, cartage, cooly expenses and did not form part of the sale price. The Tribunal found on facts that the terms of delivery between the assessees and the buyer were that delivery was to be ex-godown and risk and responsibility were to be on the account of the buyer once the goods were delivered to the carrier. It was noticed by the Tribunal that according to the terms agreed upon between the assessees and the buyer, the prices were "exclusive of handling charges for arranging carriers, loading, cooly, etc." Since, the terms of the contract between the parties provided that the delivery shall be complete when the goods are handed over to the carrier and that it shall be at the risk and responsibility of the purchaser thereafter, the stipulation made the carrier an agent of the purchaser for taking delivery of the goods and the handling charges in such cases which were incurred after the delivery to the carrier, would only be post-sale expenses and the Tribunal rightly found that the same could not be included in the sale price and had to be excluded from the taxable turnover. In taking the view, the Tribunal relied upon Hindustan Sugar Mills Ltd. v. State of Rajasthan [1979] 43 STC 13 which undoubtedly supports the case of the assessees. In the fact-situation noticed above, and the terms of the contract between the purchaser and the assessees, we find that the Tribunal committed no error in excluding from the taxable turnover the handling charges. The tax (revision) case has no merit. If fails and is dismissed. There shall, however, be no order as to costs.
3. Petition dismissed.