4. Liability to tax and rates thereof

4. Liability to tax and rates thereof.

(1) Every dealer who is or is required to be registered as specified in Sections 22 and 24, shall be liable to pay tax, on his taxable turnover,

(a) in respect of goods mentioned in,-

(i) Second Schedule, at the rate of one per cent,

(ii) Third Schedule, at the rate of five and one half per cent, and;

(iii) Fourth Schedule, at the rate of twenty per cent.

(b) in respect of.-

(i) declared goods as specified in Section 14 of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 (Central Act 74 of 1956) at the maximum rate specified for such goods under Section 15 of the said Act;

(ii) cigarettes, cigars, gutkha and other manufactured tobacco at the rate of twenty  per cent;

(iii) other goods at the rate of fourteen per cent.

(2) Where goods sold or purchased are contained in containers or are packed in any packing material liable to tax under this Act, the rate of tax applicable to taxable turnover of such containers or packing materials shall, whether the price of the containers or packing materials is charged for separately or not, be the same as the rate of tax applicable to such goods so contained or packed, and where such goods sold or purchased are exempt from tax under this Act, the containers or packing materials shall also be exempt.

(3) The State Government may, by notification, reduce the tax payable under sub-section (1) in respect of any goods subject to such restrictions and conditions as may be specified in the notification.

(3-A) Any notification issued under sub-section (3), shall be valid until it is cancelled or varied, notwithstanding that the tax payable in respect of any such goods is modified by amendment to this Act.

(4) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), subject to such conditions as may be prescribed, a registered dealer, if he so elects, may pay tax on the sale of goods specified in serial number 60 of the Third Schedule, or any other goods on the maximum retail price indicated on the label of the container or pack thereof 3[or on such maximum retail price reduced by an amount equal to the tax payable.

(5) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), a registered dealer shall be liable to pay tax on the sale of cigarettes, cigars, gutkha and other manufactured tobacco, on the maximum retail price indicated on the label of the container or pack thereof, after reducing from such maximum retail price an amount equal to the tax payable, where the total amount payable to the dealer as the consideration for sale of such goods exceeds five hundred rupees or any other higher amount as may be notified by the Commissioner.

(6) Where tax in respect of his purchase of goods is collected in accordance with sub-section (5),-

(a) a registered dealer whose sale of such goods is not liable to tax under sub-section (5), shall be eligible for refund or adjustment of any amount of tax collected on his purchase, which is in excess of the tax payable on his turnover relating to sale of such goods, and the burden of proving that the tax has been collected and paid in accordance with the said sub-section shall be on the dealer;

(b) a person who is not a dealer liable to get registered under the Act, may claim refund of any amount paid by the selling dealer in excess of the tax payable on the consideration paid by him to such dealer in such manner and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed.