Entry 66 of the First Schedule to the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959, as it existed at the relevant time, did not include "fungicides, herbicides, rodenticides and combinations thereof", and therefore "Gramoxone" was not entitled to the benefit of single-point tax under that entry.

DR. A. S. ANAND, C.J.

This is an appeal filed by the assessee against the order of the Joint Commissioner, dated January 18, 1982, passed in exercise of the suo motu powers of revision under section34 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 (hereinafter called "the Act").

2. The assessee is a dealer at Ooty, who reported a total and taxable turnover of Rs. 37, 26, 524.07 and Rs. 20, 92, 487.99, respectively for the assessment year 1975-76. Exemption was claimed on a turnover of Rs. 3, 01, 465.38 representing second sales of "Gramoxone". The assessing authority disallowed the claim of exemption holding that the commodity "Gramoxone" comes under "weedicides" which were liable at 4 per cent. multi-point tax. After noticing certain other defects also the accounts of the assessee had been rejected and recourse was had to best of judgment assessment. The assessing authority, accordingly, estimated the total and taxable turnover of the assessee at Rs. 34, 39, 567.12 and Rs. 23, 11, 213.35, respectively. Additional tax and surcharge were also levied on the above turnover at the prescribed rates. The assessee went up in appeal before the Appellate Assistant Commissioner, Coimbatore, and disputed the levy of multi-point tax on the second sale turnover of "Gramoxone". The levy of additional tax was also questioned. The Appellate Assistant Commissioner agreed with the assessee and held that the commodity "Gramoxone" falls under entry 66 of the First Schedule to the Act and since the sales were only second sales, the assessee was not liable to pay any tax thereon. The Joint Commissioner examined the order of the Appellate Assistant Commissioner with the connected record and proposed to revise that order. A notice was accordingly issued to the assessee and after inviting its objections and considering the same, the Joint Commissioner confirmed the proposal after holding that at the relevant point of time, for the assessment year in question, the commodity "Gramoxone", which falls under "weedicides and fungicides", did not fall under entry 66 of the First Schedule and that the said commodity was liable at multi-point rate of taxation. Consequently, the order of the appellate authority was set aside and that of the assessing authority restored. The assessee questions the correctness of the order of the Joint Commissioner through this appeal.

3. Learned counsel for the appellant did not dispute that "Gramoxone" falls under "weedicides and fungicides". His argument, however, was that entry 66 of the First Schedule, as it existed at the relevant time, dealt with "pesticides and insecticides" and he went on to argue that "Gramoxone" was included in the expression "pesticides" as it was a species, of "fungicides and weedicides". Learned counsel argued that entry 66 of the First Schedule had been amended and substituted by a new entry, which included "fungicides", and since that amendment incorporated by Act 7 of 1977 was of a clarificatory nature in respect of the original entry, the Appellate Assistant Commissioner was right in holding that the commodity "Gramoxone" was covered under entry 66 of the First Schedule and that the Joint Commissioner fell in error in not noticing the true character of the commodity and holding that since the amendment of the entry had not been given retrospective effect, the benefit of that entry was not available to the assessee. Learned counsel also placed reliance on section3(e) of the Insecticides Act, 1968 (Central Act 46 of 1968) to urge that the expression "pesticides" included "weedicides and fungicides".

4. The Additional Government Pleader (Taxes) in reply, only relied upon the order made by the Joint Commissioner and submitted that it did not call for any interference.

5. Before we proceed to consider whether "Gramoxone", which is the brand name for the commodity aimed to control weeds (weedicides and fungicides), would fall under entry 66 of the First Schedule to the Act or not, it would be ad