5. The following amendments shall be made in the Excises and Salt Act, 1944 (I of 1944), namely:-

(1) throughout the Act, except in clause (b) of section 2, for the words “National Board of Revenue” the word “Board” shall be substituted;

(2) for section 2 the following shall be substituted, namely:-

“ 2. Definitions.- In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context,-

(a) “admission” includes admission as a spectator or as one of an audience, and admission for the purpose of amusement by taking part in an entertainment;

(b) “Board” means the National Board of Revenue constituted under the National Board of Revenue Order, 1972 (P.O. No. 76 of 1972);

(c) “broker” or “commission agent” means a person who, in the ordinary course of business, makes contracts for the sale or purchase of excisable goods for others;

(d) “charge for admission” includes any payment made by a person who having been admitted to one part of a place of entertainment is subsequently admitted to another part thereof, for admission to which a payment involving a duty or a higher rate of duty is required, and any payment for seats or other accommodation in a place of entertainment;

(e) “curing” includes wilting, drying, fermenting and any process for rendering an unmanufactured product fit for marketing or manufacture;

(f) “distributor” means a person appointed by a manufacturer in or for a specified area to purchase excisable goods from him for sale to a wholesale dealer in that area;

(g) “enterprise” includes a company, firm, establishment, institution, club or any other association of persons by whatever name called;

(h) “entertainment” includes any cinema show, theatrical performance, musical performance, amusement, exhibition, show or performance in any other manner or by whatever name called, games and sports to which persons are admitted on payment;

(i) “Excise Officer” means any officer of the Excise Department or any person invested by the Board with any of the powers of an Excise officer under this Act or the rules made thereunder;

(j) “excisable goods” means goods specified in Part I of the First Schedule as being subject to a duty of excise and includes salt;

(k) “excisable services” means services, facilities, utilities and entertainments specified in Part II of the First Schedule as being subject to a duty of excise;

(l) “factory” means any premises, including the precincts thereof, wherein or in any part of which excisable goods other than salt are manufactured, or wherein or in any part of which any manufacturing process connected with the production of these goods is being carried on or is ordinarily carried on;

(m) “manufacture” includes any process incidental or ancillary to the completion of a manufactured product and any process of remanufacture, re-making, re-conditioning or repair and the process of packing or re-packing such product; and

(i) in relation to tobacco, includes the preparation of cigarettes, cigars, cheroots, biris, cigarette or pipe or hookah tobacco, chewing tobacco or snuff; and

(ii) in relation to salt, includes collection, removal, preparation, steeping, evaporation, boiling, or any one or more of these processes, the separation or purification of salt obtained in the manufacture of saltpetre, the separation of salt from earth or other substance so as to produce alimentary salt and the excavation or removal of natural saline deposits or efflorescence; and the word “manufacturer” shall be construed accordingly and shall include not only a person who employs hired labour in the production or manufacture of excisable goods, but also any person who engages in their production or manufacture on his own account if those goods are intended for sale; and

(iii) in respect of gold and silver and products thereof, also any person dealing in gold and silver and products thereof who, whether or not he carries out any process of manufacture himself or through his employees or relatives, gets any process of manufacture carried out on his behalf by any person who is not in his employ, and any person so dealing in gold and silver and products thereof shall be deemed to have manufactured for all purposes of this Act all products of gold or silver in which he deals in any capacity whatever;

(n) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act;

(o) “sale” and “purchase”, with their grammatical variations and cognate expressions, mean any transfer of the possession of goods by one person to another in the ordinary course of trade or business for cash or deferred payment or other consideration;

(p) “saltpetre” includes rasi, sajji, and all other substances manufactured from saline earth, and kharinun and every form of sulphate or carbonate of soda;

(q) “salt factory” includes-

(i) a place used or intended to be used in the manufacture of salt and all embankments, reservoirs, condensing and evaporating pans, buildings and waste places situated within the limits of such place as defined from time to time by the Collector of Excise;

(ii) all drying grounds and storage platforms and store-houses appertaining to any such place;

(iii) land on which salt is spontaneously produced; and a “private salt factory” is one not solely owned or not solely worked by the Government;

(r) “wholesale dealer” means a person who buys or sells excisable goods wholesale for the purpose of trade or manufacture, and includes a broker or commission agent who, in addition to making contracts for the sale or purchase of excisable goods for others, stocks such goods belonging to others as an agent for the purpose of sale.”;

(3) in section 4, after sub-section (3), the following new sub-section (4) shall be added on such date as the Government may, by notifications in the official Gazette, appoint, namely:-

“(4) Where under this Act any entertainment is subject to a duty dependent on the charge for admission to such entertainment and-

(a) the proprietor or enterprise of an entertainment admits any person to any place of entertainment as a spectator or as an audience for the purpose of amusement by taking part in it without any payment or on payment of an amount less than the amount normally charged for admission thereto, the duty shall nevertheless be levied and collected on the amount which would have been charged for such entertainment had it not been provided free of charge or at a concessional rate; and

(b) the amount with reference to which the duty shall be payable shall be the amount charged for admission to an entertainment, exclusive of the duty and any other tax, which a spectator or as audience pays or would have to pay but for any special relation ship between the parties in question.

Explanation.- For the purpose of clause (a),-

(i) “proprietor” in relation to any entertainment, includes any person responsible for the management thereof; and

(ii) in case there are different classes of seats in the entertainment 'place of entertainment' means the class to which such person is admitted.”;

(4) in section 33, in clause (b), for the words and comma “Deputy Collector, Assistant Collector or Superintendent of Excise” the words and comma “Deputy Collector of Excise, Assistant Collector of Excise or Superintendent of Excise” shall be substituted;

(5) in section 37, in sub-section (2), after clause (xi), the following new clauses

(xia) and (xib) shall be inserted, namely:-

“(xia) provide for the supply and use of stamps or stamped tickets or for the stamping of tickets sent to be stamped; and for securing the defacement of stamps when used; for controlling the use of barriers or mechanical contrivances in use for admission of persons to the entertainments; for the checking of admissions and for the renewal of damaged or spoiled stamps;

(xib) provide for the maintenance of books of accounts, registers, bills and tickets and for the submission of returns and statements;”; and

(6) the First Schedule shall be amended in the manner set out in the Second Schedule to this Act.