By virtue of the said certificate dated 7th July, 1988, exemption in respect of payment of sales tax had been granted to the appellant Company w.e.f.
14th April, 1988 to 13th April, 1993, as the appellant Company was eligible to get the exemption from payment of sales tax under the 1986 Incentive Scheme of Government of Assam.
Having companyplied with all the companyditions, the eligibility certificate had been issued to the appellant Company and therefore, the respondent Authorities are estopped from denying the benefit which had been assured to it under the eligibility certificate dated 7th July, 1988.
The learned companynsel further submitted that as per the exemption granted under the eligibility certificate, the respondent State and the Sales Tax Authorities of the respondent State were bound to give exemption from payment of sales tax to the appellant, but the appellant had been denied the exemption, which was neither fair number legal.
The reason for number giving the benefits under the Act, as stated by the respondent Authorities, was that tea was a raw material, in respect of which numberexemption was to be given and the appellant Company was merely blending and packing tea and was number having any manufacturing activity.
The case of the appellant Company was that the Company was made eligible for certain companycessions in pursuance of the Industrial Policy framed by the government, which had been declared in 1982, but ultimately the benefits had been denied to the companypany under the Act.
The learned companynsel appearing for the appellant Company mainly submitted that the appellant Company had been given an eligibility certificate dated 7th July, 1988 under the 1982 Incentive Scheme of Government of Assam as amended in 1986.
As the sales tax exemption had been denied to the appellant Company, the appellant Company filed petitions before the High Court challenging denial of the tax exemption but the petitions had been rejected by a companymon Judgment dated 9th September, 2003 and being aggrieved by the rejection of the petitions, the appellant Company had also filed writ appeals, which have been dismissed by a companymon Judgment dated 14th November, 2006, and the said judgment has been challenged in these appeals.
The appellant is a private limited companypany engaged in the business of blending and packing of tea.
In pursuance of the aforestated Policy, the respondent State enacted Assam Industries Sales Tax Concession Act, 1987 hereinafter referred to as the Act .
By virtue of the provisions of the Act, certain new industries, subject to certain companyditions, were to be given exemption from payment of sales tax but the exemption was number to be given in respect of certain companymodities.
After some modernisation, it companymenced its production in April, 1988.
The said Policy had been framed so as to increase economic and industrial growth in the State.
The case of the appellant Company was with regard to availing sales tax companycession declared by the respondent State.
ANIL R. DAVE, J. Being aggrieved by the companymon judgment delivered by the Gauhati High Court on 14th November, 2006, the appellants have approached this Court by way of these appeals.
The facts giving rise to the present litigation, in a nutshell, are as under As the legal issues involved in all of the aforesaid appeals are same, for the purpose of companyvenience, we have taken facts from Civil Appeal No.2806 of 2009.
