2. Definitions

2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires -

(a) Assessing Authority means any of the authorities referred to in section 10 who is directed under sub-section (2) of that section to exercise or perform all or any of the powers and functions conferred on an Assessing Authority under this Act.

(b) Assistant Commercial Taxes Officer means an Assistant Commercial Taxes Officer appointed under sub-section (1) of section 10.

(c) Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes means an Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes and Additional Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes appointed under sub-section (1) of section 10.

(d) Business includes -

(i) any trade, commerce, manufacture or any adventure or concern in the nature of trade, commerce, manufacture whether or not such trade, commerce, manufacture, adventure or concern is carried on with a motive to make gain or profit and whether or not any gain or profit accrues from such trade, commerce, manufacture, adventure or concern.

(ii) any transaction of sale or purchase in connection with, or incidental or ancillary to such trade, commerce, manufacture, adventure or concern; and

(iii) any transaction in connection with, or incidental or ancillary to the commencement or closure of such business.

(e) Capital Goods means plant, machinery and equipment used in trade or manufacturing of goods.

(f) Casual Trader means a person, who, whether as principal, agent or in any other capacity undertakes occasional transactions in the nature of business involving buying, selling, supply or distribution of goods or conducting any exhibition-cum-sale in the State of Bihar, whether for cash, deferred payment, commission, remuneration or other valuable consideration.

(g) Commercial Taxes Officer means a Commercial Taxes Officer appointed under subsection (1) of section 10 of this Act.

(h) Commissioner means the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes appointed under subsection (1) of section 10 or Additional Commissioner of Commercial Taxes and any other officer upon whom the State Government may, by notification, confer all or any of the powers and duties of the Commissioner under this Act.

(i) Dealer means any person who, whether regularly or otherwise, in the course of business buys, sells, supplies, distributes or does anything incidental to such buying, selling, supplying or distributing of goods, directly or indirectly, whether for cash, or for deferred payment or for commission, remuneration or other valuable consideration and includes -

(A) a local authority.

(B) a Hindu undivided family.

(C) a company, or any society (including a co-operative society), club, firm, association of persons or body of individuals, whether incorporated or not, which carries on such business.

(D) a society (including a co-operative society), club, firm or association which buys goods from, or sells, supplies or distributes goods to its members.

(E) an industrial, commercial, banking or trading undertaking, whether or not of the Central Government or of any of the State Governments or of a local authority.

(F) a casual trader.

(G) a commission agent, broker, factor, a del-credere agent, an auctioneer or any other mercantile agent, by whatever name called, who carries on the business of buying, selling, supplying or distributing goods on behalf of the principal.

Explanation: Every person who acts as an agent on behalf of a dealer residing outside the State of Bihar and buys, sells, supplies or distributes goods in the State or acts on behalf of such dealer as -

(a) a commission agent, broker, factor, a del-credere agent, an auctioneer or any other mercantile agent, by whatever name called; or

(b) an agent for handling goods or documents of title to goods; or

(c) an agent for the collection or the payment of the sale price of goods or as a guarantor for such collection or payment; or

(d) a local branch of a firm or company situated outside the State, shall be deemed to be a dealer for the purpose of this Act.

(j) Declared Goods means goods declared under section 14 of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 to be of special importance in inter-State trade or commerce.

(k) Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes means Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes or Additional Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes appointed under subsection (1) of section 10.

(l) Goods means all kinds of movable property including livestock, computer software, any electronic chip used for the purpose of storing or transmitting data or voice and all materials, commodities and articles (as such or in some other form) but excluding newspapers, electricity, actionable claims, stocks, shares or security.

Explanation: For the purposes of this clause, materials, commodities and articles -

(i) attached to or forming part of an immovable property which are agreed to be severed under the contract of sale; or

(ii) sold or supplied as such or in some other form in the execution of works contract, lease or hire purchase, shall be deemed to be goods within the meaning of this clause.

(m) Goods Carrier means a motor vehicle, vessel, boat, animal and any form of conveyance used for carrying goods.

(n) Government means the Government of the State of Bihar.

(o) Gross Turnover means -

(i) for the purposes of levy of tax on sales, in respect of sale of goods, aggregate of sale prices received or receivable by a dealer on sales and includes sale of goods made outside the State of Bihar or in the course of inter-State trade or commerce or export but does not include sale price of goods which have borne the incidence of tax on purchase under sections 4 and 5;

(ii) for the purposes of levy of tax on purchase, aggregate of purchase prices paid or payable by a dealer during any given period in respect of purchase of goods or class or description of goods which are liable to tax under sections 4 and 5; and

(iii) for the purposes of section 3, the aggregate of the amounts under sub-clauses (i) and (ii) above.

Explanation: For the purposes of this clause, the amount received by a dealer on account of price variation or price escalation in respect of sale or supply of goods shall be deemed to form part of Gross Turnover of the financial year during which it is actually received.

(p) Importer means a dealer who brings any goods into the State of Bihar or to whom any goods are despatched from any place outside the State of Bihar.

(q) Input means goods (excluding goods specified in Schedule IV) purchased in the course of business -

(a) for re-sale.

(b) for use in manufacture of goods including packing materials.

(c) for use as capital goods as defined in clause (e).

(r) Input Tax means the amount paid or payable by a registered dealer, by way of tax under this Act, in respect of purchase of any taxable goods.

(s) Inspector means an Inspector of Commercial Taxes appointed under sub-section (3) of section 10.

(t) Month means a calendar month.

(u) Notification means a notification published in the Official Gazette.

(v) Output Tax means the tax charged or chargeable in respect of sale or supply of goods made by a registered dealer.

(w) Place of Business means any place where a dealer, either usually or for the time being, manufactures, sells or purchases goods or keeps accounts of stocks, manufactures, sales or purchases, execution of works contracts, hire purchase contracts and lease contracts or any other place where business activity takes place and includes -

(i) the place of business of an agent, in case of a dealer carrying on business through an agent; or

(ii) any place or building in which a person carrying on a business, keeps any of his books of account, documents, stocks or other things, relating to his business;

(x) Prescribed Authority means the authority prescribed under the rules made under this Act to exercise powers conferred under different provisions and perform such functions as may be conferred by or under this Act.

(y) Prescribed means prescribed under the rules made under this Act.

(z) Purchase Price means the amount paid or payable by a dealer as a valuable consideration in respect of purchase of goods and includes -

(i) any amount charged for anything done by the vendor in respect of the goods at the time of, or before, the delivery thereof;

(ii) transport costs or freight, if any;

(iii) trade commission, if any, by whatever name called;

(iv) clearing, forwarding and handling charges, if any;

(v) insurance charges, if any;

(vi) taxes or duties under any law for the time being in force (other than tax paid or payable under this Act) by whatever name called, if any;

(vii) cost of packing, if any; and

(viii) the amount paid or payable by the purchaser by way of non-refundable deposit, whether by way of a separate agreement or not, in connection with or incidental or ancillary to, the said purchase of goods.

(za) Quarter means the quarter ending on the 30th June, 30th September, 31st December and 31st March and the expression quarterly shall be construed accordingly.

(zb) Registered Dealer means a dealer in possession of a valid certificate of registration granted to him under section 19 or under the provisions of the Bihar Finance Act, 1981, as it stood before its repeal by section 94.

(zc) Sale with all its grammatical variations and cognate expressions means any transfer of property in goods for cash or deferred payment or for other valuable consideration and includes -

(i) a transfer, otherwise than in pursuance of a contract, of property in any goods for cash, deferred payment or other valuable consideration;

(ii) a transfer of property in goods (whether as goods or in some other form) involved in the execution of a works contract;

(iii) a delivery of goods on hire purchase or any system of payment by installments;

(iv) a transfer of the right to use any goods for any purpose (whether or not for a specified period) for cash, deferred payment or other valuable consideration;

(v) a supply of goods by any unincorporated association or body of persons to a member thereof for cash, deferred payment or other valuable consideration;

(vi) a supply, by way of or as part of any service or in any other manner whatsoever, of goods, being food or any other article for human consumption or any drink (whether or not intoxicating) where such supply or service is for cash, deferred payment or other valuable consideration;

and such transfer, delivery or supply of any goods shall be deemed to be a sale of those goods by the person making the transfer, delivery or supply and purchase of those goods by the person to whom such transfer, delivery or supply is made.

(zd) (1) Sale Price means the amount payable to a dealer as valuable consideration for the sale or supply of any goods and includes –

(i) any amount charged for anything done by the vendor in respect of the goods at the time of, or before, the delivery thereof;

(ii) transport costs or freight, if any;

(iii) trade commission, if any, by whatever name called;

(iv) clearing, forwarding and handling charges, if any;

(v) insurance charges, if any;

(vi) taxes or duties levied under any law for the time being in force (other than tax paid or payable under this Act), by whatever name called, if any;

(vii) cost of packing, if any; and

(viii) the amount received or receivable by the seller by way of non-refundable deposit, whether by way of a separate agreement or not, in connection with or incidental to or ancillary to, the said sale of goods;

Explanation-I: Where goods are sold on hire purchase or any system of payment by installments, the sale price of such goods shall be inclusive of insurance charges, interest and hire charges and such other charges related to hire purchase or any system of payment by installments.

Explanation-II: Where goods are sold by way of transfer of right to use such goods, the sale price thereof shall be the amount of valuable consideration received or receivable by the transferor for such transfer.

Explanation-III: Sale price shall not include trade discount allowed by the dealer according to the ordinary trade practice, if shown separately.

(zd) (2) Notwithstanding anything contained in clause (1), in case of goods specified in a notification issued by the State Government in this behalf, to a person other than a dealer who is registered under section 19, the sale price shall be deemed to be -

(a) the retail sale price, in a case where such price is required to be declared on the package thereof under the provisions of the Standard Weights and Measurement Act, 1976 (Act 60 of 1976) or the rules made thereunder or under any other law for the time being in force, or

(b) in any other case, the price on which the goods would have been sold in the normal course of business to a consumer at the retail level.

Provided that the word person in this clause shall not include the State Government or the Central Government or a department of the State Government or the Central Government or a Company, Corporation, Board, Authority or Undertaking owned, controlled or financed, whether partly or wholly, by the State Government or the Central Government.

Explanation-I: For the purpose of this clause, the retail sale price means the maximum sale price at which the goods may be sold to the ultimate consumer and includes all taxes (excluding tax payable under the Act), freight, transport charges, commission payable and all charges towards advertisement, delivery, packing, forwarding, and the like.

Explanation-II: Where different retail sale prices are applicable for sale in different areas, each such retail sale price shall be the retail sale price for the purposes of valuation of goods intended to be sold in the area to which the retail sale price relates.

(ze) Tax means the tax leviable and payable under this Act.

(zf) Taxable Goods means all goods in respect of which tax is payable under section 14.

(zg) Tribunal means the Tribunal constituted under sub-section (1) section 9.

(zh) Works Contract means any agreement for carrying out for cash or deferred payment or other valuable consideration, the construction, fitting out, improvement or repair of any building, road, bridge or other immovable or movable property.

(zi) Year means the financial year.