JUDGMENT

Bharucha, J.-Civil Appeal Nos. 5418-5420 of 1997 :

We are called upon to interpret a notification (499/90) issued under the provisions of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963. The relevant portion thereof reads thus:

".......The Government of Kerala having considered it necessary in the public interest so to do hereby make an exemption in respect of the tax payable under the said Act by new industrial units under the Small Scale Industries and by such of the existing industrial units which effect diversification, expansion, modernisation on the turnover of sale of goods manufactured and sold by such units and on the turnover of goods taxable at the point of last purchase in the State and used by such units in the manufacture of goods intended for sale within the State or interstate ............".

2. The Kerala Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal opined that the notification "contemplates exemption only on the turnover of goods taxable at the point of last purchase in the State and used by such units in the manufacture of goods within the State. It is an undisputed fact that the copper scrap is not goods taxable at the point of last purchase in the State. .............. What ha