Fiscal exemption for handwoven cloth turns on the six-yard price test, not the actual length sold.

An exemption for handwoven and handspun cotton cloth under Item 16 of Schedule III to the Assam Sales Tax Act, 1947 turns on the statutory description and the price cap of six yards at not more than Rs. 10. The text states that the six-yard reference is only the unit for applying the price test and does not impose a separate restriction on the actual length sold at one time. Applying the rule that ambiguity in a fiscal exemption must be resolved in favour of the assessee, the exemption is available so long as the cloth fits the description and satisfies the price criterion.

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Issues: Whether, under Item 16 of Schedule III of the Assam Sales Tax Act, 1947, exemption from sales tax on handwoven and handspun cotton cloth made from mill-made yarn depends only on the price criterion based on six yards, or also on the actual length in which the cloth is sold at one time.

Analysis: Section 7(1) of the Act makes exemption depend on the conditions and exceptions in Schedule III. Item 16 describes the cloth and prescribes that the price per piece of six yards must not exceed Rs. 10. The words used do not expressly require that the cloth must be sold only in six-yard lengths. The price standard is the controlling test, and the reference to six yards serves as the unit for determining price. Where the language of a fiscal provision is ambiguous, the construction favourable to the subject is to be preferred.

Conclusion: The exemption applies if the cloth answers the description in Item 16 and the price per six yards does not exceed Rs. 10, irrespective of the actual length sold at one time; the answer is in the affirmative and is in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: An ambiguous exemption provision in a fiscal statute must be construed in favour of the assessee, and where the statutory language fixes a price test by reference to a unit measure, that unit is not to be read as an independent restriction on the length actually sold unless the statute clearly says so.

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