Registration under sales tax law does not relate back absent express retrospective effect, so earlier sales lose deduction.

In sales tax law, a purchaser could not be treated as a registered dealer from the date of application merely because the registration certificate later issued under the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941 omitted the effective date. The Act required the sale to be tested at the time it occurred, and deduction was available only for sales to a registered dealer supported by the prescribed declaration. In the absence of an express statutory deeming fiction or retrospective effect, later registration could not validate earlier sales. The sales made before the grant of registration therefore did not qualify for deduction.

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Issues: Whether, where a registration certificate under the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941 did not specify the date from which it was effective, the dealer could be deemed to have become a registered dealer from the date of the application for registration so that sales made before the date of grant would qualify as sales to a registered dealer.

Analysis: Section 5(2)(a)(ii) permits deduction only for sales to a registered dealer, and the proviso requires a declaration furnished by such registered dealer. Section 7 requires an eligible dealer to apply for registration and empowers the authority to grant a certificate in the prescribed form, while section 11(2) deals with assessment where a dealer has failed to get himself registered. The form then in force stated that the certificate was valid from a specified date, but no statutory provision created a presumption that registration related back to the date of application when the certificate was silent. The scheme of the Act showed that the character of the transaction had to be tested at the time of sale, and a later grant of registration could not by judicial interpretation create a deeming fiction in a fiscal statute. The hardship arising from administrative delay did not justify treating the applicant as a registered dealer for past transactions.

Conclusion: The answer was in the negative. The sales made before the grant of registration could not be treated as sales to a registered dealer merely because the certificate omitted the effective date, and the deduction was not allowable. The view was in favour of the revenue authorities.

Ratio Decidendi: In a taxing statute, unless the Act or valid rules expressly create a retrospective effect or deeming fiction, registration cannot be presumed to operate from the date of application merely because the certificate omits the effective date; the tax character of the sale is determined when the transaction occurs.

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