N.K.Agrawal, J.

1. The following question of law has been referred by the Sales Tax Tribunal, Punjab, to this Court for opinion.

"Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the maize oil manufactured and sold by the applicant is an edible oil ?".

2. The assessee is a private limited company and is a registered dealer under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 (for short, "the Act") and the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948. The assessee-company is engaged in the manufacturing of corn products like maize, starch and maize (corn) oil. The assessee had sold maize oil for Rs. 17,87,797. The assessees plea was that the maize oil, sold by the assessee, was liable to tax at the concessional rate of one per cent as an edible oil. However, the assessing authority, while making assessment for the assessment year 1981-82, declined to treat maize oil as edible oil and levied sales tax at the higher rate of 4 per cent instead of one per cent on the inter-State sale of maize oil. An additional demand of Rs. 1,02,521 was created.

3. Edible oil has not been defined in the Punjab General Sales Tax Act. The Assessing Authority took the view that maize oil was not an edib