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By Vijay Kumar

Customs

Re-imported goods liable to same duty as when imported for the first time : Supreme Court

APPELLANT is engaged in the recording of audio cassettes falling under Heading 85.24 of the Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act. Recording is done on audio cassette recorders of which magnetic head is an essential ingredient. Magnetic heads are imported and with regular use they get worn out and have to be sent abroad for re-lapping as no such facility is available in India . Eight consignments of magnetic heads were sent/exported to Singapore for repairs/re-lapping under shipping bills. On its re-import after repairs against the said bills of entry, the appellant claimed concessional customs duty under Notification No.94 /96- Cus . dated 16.12.1996 and countervailing duty on the ground that no central excise duty is leviable on the repaired goods in India .

The authority-in-original accepted the plea of the appellant that on re-import of repaired goods, the benefit of Notification No.94 /96- Cus . dated 16.12.1996 for charging customs duty was available to it. He, however, charged CVD on repaired goods which was paid by the appellant under protest as the goods were urgently required in its factory. An appeal was filed against this part of the order of the Assistant commissioner on the Bills of Entry itself. The Commissioner( Appeals) allowed the appeal by way of remand.

Purchase Tax

Sugarcane – Minimum Statutory price fixed by Central Govt; higher price as State Advised Price paid – Purchase tax on higher price : Supreme Court

Purchase tax - Sugarcane – Minimum Statutory price fixed by Central Govt; higher price as State Advised Price paid – Purchase tax on higher price – The definition of " Sale" (in Section 2(t) of the Act) is relevant. It refers to transfer of the property in goods by one person to another in the course of trade or business "for cash or for deferred payment or other valuable consideration". "Purchase price" is well-known expression in commercial transactions. Every purchase involves a corresponding sale.

The purchase money or purchase price for property is the price to be paid for it. Speaking technically, acquires by "words of purchase" and is a "purchaser" when he obtains title in any other mode than by descent or devolution of law.

Normal meaning of the word 'purchase' is acquisition for money or for any consideration.

Central Excise

'Scrabble' is a parlour game falling for classification under CET 9504.90 and not an 'Educational Toy or Puzzle, CTH 95.03', says Tribunal while confirming a duty demand of about Rs 23 lakhs along with penalties

IN 1931, Poughkeepsie in New York State was in a similar predicament to the rest of the USA …deep in the depths of depression. There was no job security and living on your wits was the order of the day. And so when the local architect Alfred Mosher Butts lost his job he decided to explore his passion for words & games. Mild mannered, bespectacled Butts disliked dice games as they were all down to luck. On the other hand he felt that all skill games like chess were too highbrow for the general public. So he set out to devise a game that was half luck, half skill & that is how a game called Lexico was born by the end of the year.

His application for patenting Lexico in the year 1933 was turned down. Lexico was later called New Anagrams, Alph , Criss -Cross & then Criss -Crosswords. The patent board again turned down his request to register Criss -Crosswords. This was in the year 1938. Butts returned to being an architect. With the intervention of the Second World War, Butts did not consider further development. Then came the big breakthrough in the form of James Brunot who had the inclination & time to make a commercial success out of it. He shook hands with Butts who was to receive a royalty on every game sold. The Brunot's decided that the game needed a few trimmings & finishing touches so as to make it a commercial success. They lodged a copyright application which was granted on 1st December 1948. After much searching, they coined a name for the game - “Scrabble” & managed to register the trademark on the 16th December 1948 & the rest is history! Regrettably, James Brunot died in the October 1984 & could not witness the first World Scrabble championship that took place in London in the year 1991. But Alfred Butts did – he lived to the age of 93 passing away in April 1993.

Scrabble is a word game not meant for merely verbose people or for people indulging in verbal diarrhoea. Enthusiasts at home play it and, more often than not, verbal duels would result in frequent openings of a dog-eared dictionary for adjudication over a disputed word.

Income Tax

TDS – cable TV operator – liable to deduct TDS on payments made to TV channels : P&H High Court

THE assessee is a cable net work operator who is in the business of distributing cable connections to the customers and charges subscription fee from them. The appellant-assessee enters into a contract with the licenser of various TV channels for local cable distribution system. It is relevant to mention here that these licensers are not the owners of the TV channels and they only have the exclusive right to market and distribute satellite based television service to various customers and users of the service. In the contract, the assessee is referred to as subscriber or affiliate as he is to pay the subscription to another party referred to as the licensor. These channels are telecasted from abroad and the assessee becomes an affiliate or subscriber of the licenser by entering into an agreement for payment of subscription. This payment is based on the number of customers of the appellant or the amount of subscription collected.

See our columns tomorrow for the judgements