DEBI PROSAD PAL, J.

( 1 ) THE petitioner in this application has challenged the order of the Additional Commissioner, Commercial Taxes, on the short question as to whether conversion of turmeric and black pepper purchased by the petitioner and crushed into powder can be considered as "manufactured or processed by him" so as to attract liability under the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1954 (hereinafter referred to as the Act ). The facts which have given rise to this controversy are shortly as follows : The petitioner's business is to purchase "whole" turmeric and black pepper from the market, to crush them into powder and to sell such powdered turmeric and black pepper. The petitioner purchased between 30th July, 1963 and 15th November, 1963,, "whole" turmeric and "whole" black pepper in the State of West Bengal and paid tax on the said purchase under the Act. He filed his return for the period of assessment between 30th July, 1963, to 15th November, 1963 (Dewali year 2020), showing his gross turnover for the period at Rs. 29,461. 48. As the entire sale consisted of powdered turmeric and powdered black pepper, the petitioner claimed exemption in respect of the tax on such sale as he had purchased on payment of tax under the Act from the local market. This contention of the petitioner was, however, negatived by the Commercial Tax Officer on the ground that the notifiad commodities purchased from the local markets were turmeric and black pepper in the "whole form" which were subsequently processed into "powdered form" and sold in the market. Hence the sale of the powdered form of turmeric and black pepper attracts tax uader the Act. The petitioner preferred an appeal before the Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes and a revisional application before the Additional Commissioner of Commercial Taxes against the order of the Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes. The Additional Commissioner held that the act of powdering turmeric and black pepper is also an act of manufacture and hence the petitioner being a manufacturer of powdered turmeric and black pepper in West Bengal is a dealer under the provisions of the Act and is liable to pay tax on sales of powdered turmeric or black pepper. The Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes against whose order the petitioner came before the Additional Commissioner of Commercial Taxes was of the view that the transformation of the whole turmeric and black pepper into a powdered form does not involve any act of manufacture, but constitutes an act of processing and hence under the provisions of the Act, even the act of processing any notified commodity makes a person dealer liable to pay tax under the Act.

( 2 ) BEING aggrieved by the order of the Additional Commissioner, the petitioner moved this court and obtained a rulenisi. The main contention urged before me by Mr. Aloke Chakraborty, the learned counsel for the petitioner, is that the conversion of "whole" turmeric and black pepper into powdered form by crushing cannot be said to be manufacture or an act of processing and hence the petitioner does not satisfy the test of a dealer within the meaning of Section 2 (b) of the Act in respect of the sale of the said commodity in its powdered form. To appreciate this contention it is necessary to refer to certain relevant provisions of the Act. The Act imposes a tax on the sale of certain notified commodities in West Bengal. Notified commodity, according to Section 2 (a) of the Act, means any commodity specified under Section 25 of the Act. The said Section 25 authorises the State Government to specify such commodity by notification in the official Gazette, if the State Government is of the opinion that it would be in the public interest that any commodity, which is liable to taxation under the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941, should be taxed under the Act. By a notification dated 1st May, 1955, the following commodities were declared to be notified commodities within the meaning of

Click Here to Read the rest of this document