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,