HEADNOTE

In Andhra Pradesh, Sales tax is levied under the authority of sections 5 and 5A of the A.P. General Sales Tax Act, 1957 on the ’turnover’ of a dealer. The expression ’turn- over’ has been defined in section 2(s) inter alia to include the total amount set out in the bill of sale or the total amount charged as consideration for the sale or purchase of goods whether such sales includes any other sum charged by the dealer whatever be the description, name or object thereof. Whether or not sales tax collected by the dealers from the buyers would fall under the inclusive part of aforesaid definition is the question raised in these ap- peals. It has arisen in the context of two categories of cases, namely:

(i) wherein the sales tax has been separately set out in the bill of sale and is collected by the seller at the time of sale immediately after or at the time of delivery of the goods.

(ii) wherein the sales tax is not mentioned in the bill at all but simultaneously collected with the delivery of the goods separately under debit notes whereby the exact amount of sales tax due is collected from the purchaser by the seller but the said amount is kept in the suspense account.

The submi