JUDGMENT M.C. Agarwal, J.
1. By this revision petition under Section 11 of the U.P. Trade Tax Act, the dealer challenges the order dated September 13, 1996 passed by the Trade Tax Tribunal, Moradabad whereby it allowed Commissioner's second appeal and held the sale of iron scrap made by the dealer taxable.
2. I have heard Sri M. Manglik, learned counsel for the revisionist and Sri U.K. Pande, learned counsel for the Commissioner-respondent.
3. Admittedly, the revisionist deals in iron scrap which it purchases from others. The assessing officer estimated the turnover at Rs. 3 lacs out of which sales to the extent of Rs. 1,28,800, that were made against form III-B, were treated as exempt and the rest of the sales which have been described as sales of goods purchased from unregistered dealers amounting to Rs. 1,71,200 were taxed. On appeal, the Assistant Commissioner held that the sale of iron scrap is taxable when it is made by manufacturer or importer and that the present dealer was neither an importer nor manufacturer and hence sales made by him were not taxable. The Commissioner appealed to the Tribunal, which has held that since the dealer is engaged in the business of collecting scrap, he is a manufacturer as defined in Section 2(e-l) and 2(ee) of the U.P. Trade Tax Act.
4. It is admitted that in the case of iron scrap turnover is taxable when the sale is by the manufacturer or importer. None of the authorities have said that the dealer-revisionist is an importer. The Tribunal has held the revisionist to be a manufacturer. "Manufacture" and "manufacturer" have been defined in Section 2(e-l) and 2(ee), as under :--
"2(e-l). 'manufacture' means producing, making, mining, collecting, extracting, altering, ornamenting, finishing, or otherwise processing, treating or adapting any goods ; but does not include such manufacture or manufacturing processes as may be prescribed :
(ee) 'manufacturer', in relation to any goods means the dealer who makes the first sale of such goods in the State after their manufacture and includes a dealer who sells bicycles in completely knocked down form."
5. The very first sentence of the assessment orders shows that the dealer is engaged in the purchase and sale of scrap. While assessing the turnover towards the end of his order, the assessing officer again mentions the turnover to be of scrap purchased from unregistered dealers.
6. There is nothing in the order of the Tribunal that the dealer himself collects the scrap and the finding of the authorities below that he purchased the same from the unregistered dealers has not been reversed. In fact the Tribunal has used the word ^^laxzg.k** which means storage or stocking. Purchasing scrap from unregistered dealers who may be picking scraps from here and there cannot be treated as collecting the same so as to amount to manufacture. Since admittedly, the goods, i.e., scrap has been purchased by the dealer from others, it is those' third persons who may or may not be a manufacturer within the meaning of Section 2(ee) of the Act. The sale by the present revisionist of the iron scrap purchased by him was not first sale of such goods and, therefore, Section 2(ee) had no application in the matter.
7. Learned Standing counsel has not been able to point out any provision of law under which sales of iron scrap made by a dealer in the circumstances aforesaid may be taxable.
8. In the result, the order passed by the Tribunal is legally erroneous and deserves to be set aside. The revision petition is accordingly allowed and setting aside the impugned order dated September 13, 1996 it is ordered that the Commissioner's second appeal No. 416 of 1994 for the assessment year 1992-93 shall stand, dismissed. Parties shall bear their own costs.