The State of Tamil Nadu vs T. Abdul Wahid and Co.

Balasubrahmanyan, J.—In this case the perennial question has been raised whether the transactions involved in this case are export sales or

merely local sales. The stand taken by the departmental authorities was that, although, ultimately, the goods went out of this country, so far as the

assessees were concerned, the transactions put through by them were only to purchasers resident in India who, in turn, must be held to have

exported the goods to foreign purchasers.

The Tribunal examined all the records in this case and came to the contrary conclusion. The Tribunal stated in their order as follows :

We could see from the documents filed that the goods were sold only on behalf of the appellants and that the exporters were only their agents and

have charged only a commission of 0.55 paise per piece. We could also see that the terms of agency with the exporters commenced from the year

1974 onwards. From the tripartite agreement produced before us we could also see that the appellants, the exporters and also the foreign buyers

have signed the agreement and the fact of privity of contact with the foreign buyer is also established. In view of the above, we find that the

transactions are clearly exemptible as exports through agents.

The findings of the Tribunal quoted above speak, for themselves. They are findings of fact. In this view, this tax case has got to be dismissed and

we accordingly do so. No costs.