JUDGMENT

Rajendra Babu, J.-

Civil Appeal No. 8468 of 1997 :

The appellant before us called in question the validity of Section 12-A of the Himachal Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1968 [hereinafter referred as the Act ] and Rule 31-A of the Himachal Pradesh General Sales Tax Rules [for short the Rules ] before the High Court of Himachal Pradesh. The said provisions provided for deduction of an amount from the bills or invoices of the works contractors purporting to be tax payable towards transfer of goods involved in works contract. The High Court took the view that the relevant amount is the valuable consideration payable for the transfer of property in goods and not the entire value or consideration for the entire works contract and what was directed to be deducted is only an amount not exceeding 4 per cent as may be prescribed purporting to be a part or full of the tax payable on such sales which would necessarily mean tax payable under the charging provisions of the Act. The charging provision was not in challenge before the High Court. The High Court held that the State Legislature has not exceeded its competence in enacting Section 12-A of the Act. As regards Rule 31-A of the R