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22. We shall now advert to the contention of the petitioners that the amount of excise duty has not been included in the bills of sale issued by the manufacturers and, therefore, it does not form part of the "turnover" defined under Section 2(s) of the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957 (hereinafter referred to as the Sales Tax Act), and, consequently, sales tax is not exigible in respect of excise duty. By virtue of item No. 26 of the First Schedule to the Sales Tax Act, all liquor other than country liquor is taxable at the point of its first sale in the State. The liquor produced or manufactured by the petitioners is Indian-made foreign liquor, which falls under item No. 26 of the First Schedule and it is the first sale of such liquor that is taxable. Sales tax, no doubt, is payable or chargeable on the total turnover of a dealer. All the petitioners herein are dealers whose total turnover is more than Rs. 15,000 for a year and sales tax is payable by them on their total turnover. In order that the petitioner-dealers can be made liable to pay sales tax on the amounts of excise duty paid by the purchasers, such amounts must be construed to be part of their total turnovers on which sales tax is leviable. In order to appreciate the contention of the petitioners, it is not only useful but necessary to examine the concept and content of the terms "turnover" and "total turnover" and the impact of the omission to mention the amount of excise duty in a bill of sale of liquor. "Turnover" is defined under Section 2(s) of the Sales Tax Act as "the total amount set out in the bill of sale (or if there is no bill of sale, the total amount charged) as the consideration for the sale or purchase of goods". The term "consideration" occurring in Section 2(s) is not defined in the Sales Tax Act but it is defined under Section 2(d) of the Indian Contract Act, which reads as follows:

When, at the desire of the promisor, the promisee or any other person has done or abstained from doing, or does or abstains from doing, or promises to do or to abstain from doing, something, such act or abstinence or promise is called a consideration for the promise.

"Total turnover" is defined under Section 2(r) thus:

'Total turnover' means the aggregate turnover in all goods of a dealer at all places of business in the State, whether or not the whole or any portion of such turnover, is liable to tax.