ORDER
A.V. Balasubramanyam, Judicial Member
1. The short ground involved in this appeal relates to a claim for depreciation at 100 per cent in respect of an asset used by the assessee in its business.
2. The assessee, a company, carries on the business of transporting liquified ammonia. During the previous year it had used a vehicle to transport liquified ammonia from Bombay to Goa. It had been claimed that the assessee is entitled to depreciation at 100 per cent in respect of the cylinder mounted on the vehicle as it would fall within the description in Item NI(ii) F (4) of Part I of Appendix I which provides for 100 percent depreciation in respect of “Gas cylinders including valves and regulators”. The Income-tax Officer held that the container mounted on the vehicle was nothing but a tanker which was an integral part of the truck. He, therefore, granted general depreciation at 40 per cent.
3. The matter had been carried in appeal before the Commissioner (Appeals) but unsuccessfully.
4. Shri Krishanamurthy, appearing for the assessee, contended that the container used by the assessee in this case cannot on any reasoning be treated as a tanker and that having regard to the stringent conditions imposed upon assessee in the use of the vehicle it should be granted depreciation at 100 per cent treating it as a “Gas cylinder”.
5. On record we have a photograph of the vehicle on which the container is mounted. The container is circular in shape. It has all the attributes of a cylinder. It is big in size.
6. A ‘tanker’, according to dictionary meaning, is a ship, lorry or an aircraft designed to carry liquid in bulk quantity. It can even be a railway wagon. It cannot be conceived that a gaseous substance could be transported or stored in a tanker.
7. The Income-tax Officer remarks that cylinders are containers small in shape or size. We do not find anything to support this view. Cylinders are used to convey gaseous matter and such cylinders which are normally noticed may be smaller in size. For example, cylinders for cooking gas or oxygen gas or gas used for preparing aerated waters. A cylinder is a figure of uniform in cross-section generated by a straight line remaining parallel to a fixed axis and moving round a closed curve-ordinarily in a circle perpendicular to the axis-see Chamber’s Dictionary. There is no limit in regard to size and so long as a thing compares to the conceptional meaning just stated, it should be treated as a ‘cylinder’, no matter what the size is.
8. The assessee has been granted licence by the Chief Controller of Explosives to transport compressed ammonia gas in the container mounted on the vehicle. The container is nothing but a big cylinder suitable for being mounted on the chassis of the truck. It has all the attributes of a cylinder. Stringent conditions are imposed by Explosives department having regard to the dangerous quality of the substance transported. It has special valves and regulators. To our mind it is clear that the container mounted on the chassis of the truck is a gas cylinder to fall within the description given in Appendix I, Part I, Item III(ii) F(4). Therefore, depreciation at 100 per cent is allowable on this container and the connected valves and regulators. The Income-tax Officer shall ascertain the value of the cylinder mounted on the vehicles, valves and regulators and allow depreciation as held above.
9. The appeal is allowed.