ORDER

B. N. Srikrishna J.

The issue involved in these appeals is identical and hence they can be decided by a common judgment. We shall take the facts in Civil Appeal No. 6621 of 2000 for deciding the issue.

The period involved is 1986-87 to 1993-94; the question is whether cotton based tarpaulin is exigible to sales tax under the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963 ("the KGST Act").

Section 5 of the KGST Act is the charging section which provides for the incidence and levy of sales tax. Under section 5(1)(i) in the case of goods specified in the First or Second Schedule to the KGST Act, tax is leviable at the rates and only at the points specified against such goods in the said Schedules. In the case of goods not specified in the First or Second or Fourth or Fifth Schedule, tax at a specified rate is leviable at all points of sales. Section 9 of the KGST Act provides that a dealer who deals in the goods specified in the Third Schedule shall not be liable to pay any tax under the KGST Act in respect of the sale or purchase of such goods. Section 10 is an enabling power of the State Government to grant exemption from tax, with which we are not concerned presently.

Prior to March 31, 1984, there was no specific entry for "tarpaulin" in Schedules I and II. "Tarpaulin" was classified as a separate item under entry 100-C of the First Schedule and made taxable at a specified rate at the point of first sale in the State with effect from April 1, 1984. This position continued till June 30, 1987 when the relevant entry, reading identically, was renumbered as 152, reading as :

"P.V.C. cloth, water-proof cloth, rexine and their products and tarpaulin."

The rate of tax at the material time was eight per cent at the point of first sale. This situation continued till July 31, 1991. By the Kerala Finance Act, 1991, the commodity "P.V.C. cloth" was deleted from the First Schedule with effect from August 1, 1991 from the relevant entry. This situation continued till March 31, 1992. Under the Kerala Finance Act, 1992 a new entry 106 read as "Rain coat, tarpaulin and products, of water-proof cloth, rexine and PVC cloth" was added. The rate of tax was also increased to 10 per cent without any change in the point of levy.

According to the Revenue, "tarpaulin" falls under entry 100-C or 152, as the case may be, and is taxable at 8 per cent at the first point of sale from April 1, 1984 to March 31, 1992 and from April 1, 1992 it falls under entry 106 taxable at 10 per cent at the point of first sale in the State.

The Third Schedule to the KGST Act contained entry 7, which read :

"Cotton fabrics, woollen fabrics (sic) and rayon or artificial silk fabrics as defined in item Nos. 19, 21 and 22, respectively of the First Schedule to the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944". At this juncture it may be pointed out that although the First Schedule to the Central Excises and Salt Act, 1944 was repealed in 1986, when the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 was brought into force, and the relevant entry for "cotton fabrics" was now to be found in entry 52.06 of the First Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985; entry 7 of the Third Schedule to the KGST Act continued till it was amended in 1992. On April 1, 1992, entry 7 was recast and renumbered as entry 11. The recast entry 11 grants exemption to different goods falling under the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985, including "cotton fabrics" and contains an exclusion clause which is of relevance to us and reads "Excluding PVC cloth, rexine and waterproof cloth on which duty is not levied under the Additional Duties of Excise (Goods of Special Importance) Act, 1957 (Central Act 58 of 1957)."

In 1957, the Parliament brought into force the Additional Duties of Excise (Goods of Special Importance) Act, 1957 ("the ADEA"). Under this Act, certain additional duties were levied on goods which were considered of special importance all over the country. The background against which this enactment was brought on to the