JUDGMENT
Syed Shah Mohammed Quadri, J.
1. These four tax revision cases are filed by the State under section 22(1) of the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957 (for short, “the APGST Act”). They relate to the same assessee but are in respect of different assessments. T.R.C. No. 127 of 1990 arises out of assessment for the year 1976-77 and T.R.C. No. 195 of 1990 pertains to the assessment year 1982-83. T.R.C. No. 185 of 1990 relates to assessment year 1983-84 and T.R.C. No. 206 of 1990 pertains to the assessment year 1984-85.
2. The short but interesting question that arises for consideration in these tax revision cases, is whether the electric meter falls within entry 38 or entry 83 of the First Schedule to the APGST Act.
3. The respondent, in all these tax revision cases, are the manufacturers and dealers in electrical transformers, meters, lamps, tubes, etc. The assessing authority treated the electric meters as machinery falling under entry 83 of the First Schedule to the APGST Act and, accordingly, subjected the turnover to the sales tax. The Deputy Commissioner (CT) revised the order of assessment under section 20(2) of the APGST Act and directed that the turnover be taxed under entry 38 of the First Schedule. Aggrieved by the orders of the Deputy Commissioner (CT), the respondent-dealer filed the appeals before the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal, A.P., Hyderabad. The Tribunal took the view that the electric meters fall under entry 83 but not entry 38 of the First Schedule and, accordingly, allowed the appeals of the respondent-dealer. Assailing the correctness of the view of the Tribunal, the above tax revision cases, are filed.
4. Since the question is one of interpretation of entries 38 and 83 of the First Schedule, it would be apt to read those entries here :
"38. All kinds of electrical goods, At the point 11 paise in instruments, apparatus and appliances, of first sale the rupee 'that is to say' - in the State (i) wires, holders, plugs, switches, electrical earthenware and porcelainware; (ii) casings, cappings, reapers, bends, junction boxes, meter boxes, switch boxes, meter-boards and switch-boards, other than those made of wood; (iii) electrical fans, lighting bulbs, torches, fluorescent tubes and their fittings, like chokes and starters and other parts and accessories thereof; (iv) electrical grinders, mixers, blenders, hair driers, shavers, washing machines, heaters, cooking ranges, boilers, ovens, geysors, generators, transformers and parts and accessories thereof; (v) electronic systems, instruments, apparatus, appliances including electronic cash registering, indexing, card-punching, franking and addressing machines, computers of analog and digital varieties, one-record units, oscilloscopes and other electronic equipment and material and parts and accessories thereof."
* Note. – (i) With effect from 8-7-1983 by Ordinance No. 11 of 1983 (Act No. 11 of 1984), the word, “including” was substituted for the expression, “that is to say.”
(ii) Column (1) of item 38 was substituted by Act No. 49 of 1976. The substituted column (1) was as follows :
“38. All kinds of electrical goods,
instruments, apparatus and appliances
including fans and lighting bulbs,
electrical earthenware and porcelain
and all other accessories excluding
electric motors.”
“83. All kinds of machinery propelled At the point 6 paise in
or operated by (i) electricity, of first sale the rupee.”
(ii) diesel, (iii) petrol, in the State. (iv) furnace oil, (v) kerosene, (vi) coal, including charcoal or (vii) any other fuel or power, including spare parts and accessories of such machinery (other than those specifically mentioned elsewhere). Note. - (i) Substituted by Act No. 11 of 1984 w.e.f. 20-9-1983 for entry '4 paise in the rupee' (ii) Column (1) was, substituted by Act No. 49 of 1976. The substituted column was as follows : "83. Machinery, spare parts and accessories."
5. In so far as T.R.C. Nos. 127 and 195 of 1990 are concerned, they relate to the period before the amendment of the entry 38. So, for the assessment years 1976-77 and 1982-83, the application of entry 38 has to be considered. The first question that arises is whether the expression, “all kinds of electrical goods, instruments, apparatus and appliances”, would take in its fold, “electric meters”. The electric meter is an instrument or apparatus by which the supply of electrical energy to the consumers of electricity, is measured. In our view, the expression, “electrical goods, instruments, apparatus and appliances” would take in its ambit electric meters. But, then, entry 38 before amendment contained the words, “that is to say” before clauses (i) to (v). That expression, “that is to say” has been interpreted by the Supreme Court in State of Tamil Nadu v. Pyare Lal Malhotra as apparently meaning to exhaustively enumerate the kinds of goods on a given list. It is laid down therein that, ordinarily the expression “that is to say” is employed to make clear and fix the meaning of what is to be explained or defined and that such words are not used, as a rule, to amplify a meaning while removing a possible doubt for which purpose, the word “includes” is generally employed. It is pointed that in unusual cases, depending upon the context of the words, “that is to say”, may be followed by illustrative instances. A Full Bench of this Court in Balaji General Stores v. Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes [1987] 65 STC 108 observed that where it was intended that the enumerated goods specified after the general expression were to be only illustrative but not exhaustive, the word, “including” was used and where the intention of the Legislature was that the enumerated commodities should be exhaustive, they used the word, “namely” or, “that is to say”. The word, “includes” has also been considered in the Commissioner of Income-tax, Andhra Pradesh v. Taj Mahal Hotel where the Supreme Court held that the word “includes” was often used in interpretation clauses in order to enlarge the meaning of the words or phrases occurring in the body of the “statute” and when it was so used, these words and phrases must be construed as comprehending not only such things as they signify, according to their nature and import, but all those things which the interpretation clause declares that they shall include. Considering the meanings of the above two expressions, namely, “that is to say” and “includes”, even though the words used in entry 38 are “all kinds of electrical goods, instruments, apparatus and appliances, include electric meter, before the amendment, but they could not be brought within entry 38 because the enumeration following the words “that is to say” does not include electric meter in any one of the sub-clauses. However, the position would be different after the amendment substituting the word, “including” for the words, “that is to say” because, if the words preceding “including” embrace electric meter under entry 38 and even if there is no specific mention of the same in clauses (i) to (v), those clauses would only be treated as illustrative and not exhaustive. In the result, in our view, for the assessment years 1976-77 and 1982-83, electric meter would not fall under entry 38, but it would fall within entry 38, after the amendment, that is, for the assessment years 1983-84 and 1984-85.
6. Now, we shall consider entry 83 extracted above. Entry 83 includes all kinds of machinery propelled or operated by (i) electricity, (ii) diesel, (iii) petrol, (iv) furnace oil, (v) kerosene, (vi) coal including charcoal or (vii) any other fuel or power including spare parts and accessories of such machinery (other than those specifically mentioned elsewhere). If the electric meter is a machinery and it is operated by electricity, it would fall in entry 83. In the Commissioner of Sales Tax v. Kolhapur Electric Supply Co. [1976] 37 STC 587, the Bombay High Court had to consider whether electric meters can be regarded as having been used in the manufacture or processing of goods, namely, electrical energy, for sale within the meaning of rule 11(2)(c) of the Bombay Sales Tax (Exemptions, Set-off and Composition) Rules, 1954. Kania, J. (as he then was) speaking for the Bench opined that electric meters which are equipments used for measuring electricity for the purpose of selling it to consumers must be regarded as having been used in the manufacture or processing of goods. In Shyam Enamel Works v. Commissioner of Sales Tax [1975] 35 STC 489, a Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court took the view that water meters are machinery because they work on account of the transmission of energy caused by the movement of water in them. Therefore, water meters are taxable as machinery and their parts as parts of machinery under the Uttar Pradesh Sales Tax Act. Referring to that judgment of the Allahabad High Court, a Division Bench of our High Court in State Representative before Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal, Hyderabad v. Sanicons [1980] 45 STC 234 held that a water meter which was used only to measure or record the consumption of water by a consumer could not be treated as a “water supply fitting” and, therefore, it did not fall within the ambit of the entry 102 of the First Schedule to the APGST Act. Sri Sambasiva Rao, J., honourable Chief Justice (as he then was) speaking for the Bench opined that water meters would either fall under entry 83 as machinery or under general goods.
7. In view of the above pronouncements, we are inclined to the view that the electric meters would be machines within the meaning of entry 83 before the amendment of entry 38, that is, for the assessment years 1976-77 and 1982-83.
8. For the above reasons, we dismiss T.R.C. Nos. 127 and 195 of 1990 and allow T.R.C. Nos. 185 and 206 of 1990. Having regard to the circumstances of the case, we make no order as to costs.
9. T.R.C. Nos. 185 and 206 allowed and 127 and 195 dismissed.