Mosquito mats fall under item 66 of the First Schedule to the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959, and are taxable at a single point.

D. RAJU, J.

W.P. No. 11731 of 1989 : The above writ petition has been filed for a writ of mandamus, directing the respondents herein including the State of Tamil Nadu, its officers and agents to forbear from levying or recovering sales tax from the petitioners on the sales of allethrin mosquito mats marketed by the petitioners under the brand name "Good Knight", other than under serial No. 66 of the First Schedule to the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959.

2. The petitioners, in the affidavit filed in support of the writ petition, claim that the sales of mosquito insecticide mats fall under item No. 66 of the First Schedule to the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959, hereinafter referred to as "the Act" and are taxable at single point, viz., at the point of first sale in the State. The petitioners further claim that they are the manufacturers and dealers in "Good Knight" brand mosquito insecticide mats. The petitioners have come before this Court with a grievance, giving a list of stockists and dealers of the petitioners who have been assessed to multi-point tax on the very goods which have already suffered levy under the single point. It is claimed by the petitioners that when they sold the goods, the single point tax has already been collected from the purchasers or dealers and has been passed over to the State and that inasmuch as the product in question squarely falls under item 66 of the First Schedule to the Act there cannot be any subsequent levy of the tax treating the commodity as one liable for multi-point tax under the Act. The petitioners also contend that the other departments of the Government have treated the product to be an insecticide and consequently the claim of the petitioners that it falls under item 66 of the First Schedule to the Act deserves to be sustained.

3. The respondents have filed a counter-affidavit. It is seen that the entry of item 66 in its original form was introduced by Act 11 of 1967 with effect from July 1, 1967 and in the present form with effect from September 13, 1977. The relevant entries during the relevant point of time are stated to be as hereunder :

S. No. Description of goods Point of levy Rate of tax

66 Pesticides and At the point of first 3.5% insecticides sale in the State

This entry was substituted and the present entry was introduced with effect from September 13, 1977. The present entry reads as follows :

66. Fungicides, herbicides, At the point of first 3 1/2% insecticides, pesticides, sale in the State. rodenticides and combinations thereof.

It is also stated, in traversing the claims of the petitioners, that the communication issued by the Special Commissioner and Commissioner of Commercial Taxes on August 18, 1987, that the mosquito mats are single point goods falling under item 66 of the First Schedule to the Act has subsequently been cancelled and the reference to the subsequent communications treating the mosquito mats as goods taxable at multi-point at the rate of 5 per cent is also furnished by the respondents. It is also contended for the respondents that the product marketed by the petitioners are not 100 per cent of fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, pesticides and the mosquito mat in question has been manufactured, according to the respondents, with ingredients of d-Allethrin 4 per cent and others 96 per cent and consequently the meagre quantity of 4 per cent allethrin could not make the product an insecticide. Consequently, it is contended that the product is a general item liable to tax at multi-point rate. The fact that the retail dealers do not possess any insecticide licence to sell mosquito mats is referred to as an indication that the product is not really an insecticide. That apart, it is stated that the mosquito mats in question are giving a very pleasant smell and used for the domestic purposes to repel the mosquitos and that the product is harmless either to human being or to domestic pets. Reliance is also placed upon the principle o