Satyanarayana Rao, J.-

This is a batch of petitions under the Sales Tax Act, which are given the appellation “Tax on Tax” cases, which expression is suggestive of the point involved in the cases.

The question raised is, whether the amounts collected by the registered dealer from the consumer by way of tax and paid over to the Government should be included in the turnover of the registered dealer as part of the sale price of the goods sold. The facts in C.R.P. No.1413 of 1952 may be taken as typical of the facts in the other cases.

The assessee in the case is one Krishnaswamy Mudaliar and Sons dealers in timber and piece-goods at Vellore. His turnover was assessed at Rs.27,38,901-1-10 for the assessment year 1948-49. The assessee objected to the inclusion of a sum of Rs.39, 759-13-1 in the turnover of his business as it represents the amount of tax which he collected from the consumers and paid over to Government. The decision of the department was against the assessee; he succeeded in convincing the Tribunal that his claim was well-founded. The Government have filed these petitions against the orders of the Tribunal.

Under the Madras General Sales Tax Act, a registered dealer is empowe

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