In Brief
The Supreme Court addressed whether sales of imported cigarettes stored in bonded warehouses within West Bengal and subsequently sold to foreign-going ships as ship stores were amenable to State sales tax. The appellants claimed these were sales 'in the course of import' and thus exempt from sales tax. The Court held that such sales were taxable because they occurred in a bonded warehouse outside the defined customs station area (customs port/land customs station) and did not occasion the import of goods. The Court emphasized that 'crossing customs frontiers' has a strict technical meaning and that sales effected beyond designated customs areas remain subject to State sales tax. The appeals were dismissed.
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