1. This petition by the Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax, South Zone, Quilon, is directed against the decision of the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal, Trivandrum, in Tribunal Appeal No. 428 of 1962. That decision is to the effect that the respondent, the Travancore Rubber and Tea Company Limited, Alleppey, is not a dealer as defined in S.2(b) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, in respect of its sales of rubber and that those sales are not as a result liable to taxation under the said enactment.

The definition of the expression "dealer" as given in S.2(b) of the Act reads as follows:

"'dealer' means any person who carries on the business of buying or selling goods and includes a Government which carries on such business."

It is common ground that all that the company does is to convert the latex tapped from its rubber trees into sheets and effect a sale of those sheets to its customers. The sole question for determination is whether in these circumstances the company can be considered to be a person who carries on the business of selling goods.

3. Latex is an opaque liquid resembling milk. It is not disputed that the usual method of selling it is after converting it into sheet