P. Shanmugham

All these Original Petitions raise a common question of law, namely, whether motor vehicles imported from aboard are liable to pay entry tax.

2. The vires of the Kerala Tax On Entry of Motor Vehicles Into Local areas Act, 1994 came up for consideration before a Division Bench of this Court in Raj an v. State of Kerala (1995 (2) KLT369). The Division Bench repelled the challenge to the various provisions of the Act and held that the State is competent to impose tax for entry of goods into local area and the same is not violative of Arts.301 and 304 of the Constitution of India. In the light of the Division Bench judgment a very little scope is left for the challenge of the Act.

3. All these petitioners are owners of the vehicles who have brought them into the State of Kerala after paying custom duty to the Central Government. According to learned counsel for the petitioners the intendment of the legislature and object of the Act is to compensate the evasion of sales tax on motor vehicles purchased from outside the State. Therefore, the entry tax is differential to sales-tax in the sense that the said tax is imposed to compensate the loss of sales tax from the