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8. Eventually, the finding arrived at by the Tribunal was that the assessee-Devasthanam is not a dealer in supply of food and drinks to the pilgrims as defined under the Act and such transactions cannot be transactions of sale.

Dealing with the sale of motor parts as scrap, it has stated thus :

"We, therefore, hold that even otherwise the transactions of the Devasthanam in selling scrap, unserviceable and surplus materials not connected with the functions and activities of the Devasthanam cannot be held as the appellants carrying on business of selling scrap and the Devasthanam cannot be held to be 'dealer' within the meaning of the Act. On the undisputed facts of the present case, we do not think that there was any intention on the part of the Devasthanam to carry on business in transport much less unserviceable and surplus materials."

25. In Board of Trustees of the Visakhapatnam Port Trust v. Commercial Tax Officer [1979] 43 STC 36, a Division Bench of this Court was faced with the question whether the amounts realised by disposal of unserviceable or surplus material by the Visakhapatnam Port Trust will be liable to sales tax or not and held :

"It is obvious that it must first be found that a particular assessee under consideration is carrying on business and if the assessee is selling scrap materials, the items must have been acquired with the intention of carrying on business. In the instant case, it is not possible for us, in view of what has been discussed above, to hold that the Board of Trustees is carrying on any business or is a dealer and, therefore, it is not possible for us to hold that the sale of surplus material or sale of scrap amounts to carrying on any business and hence the amounts realised by disposal of unserviceable or surplus material by auction will not be liable to sales tax."

It may be stated here that the Visakhapatnam Port Trust was concerned with the activities of :

(a) supply of water to visiting vessels;

(b) bunkering of visiting vessels with liquid fuel;

(c) offering of tender documents for a consideration to prospective contractors;

(d) supply of water and issue of stores to accepted contractors;

(e) supply of water and issue of stores to its own engineers and staff; and

(f) disposal of unserviceable material or surplus material by auction or by inviting tenders.