Concessional tax certificate timing: later issue did not defeat relief where rules allowed earlier operative date.

Section 6A of the Bihar Sales Tax Act allowed concessional tax on sales to a registered dealer holding the prescribed certificate and declaration, and the rules did not require the certificate to take effect only from the date of actual issue. Rule 4A(5)(a) made the clause (b) certificate co-terminus with the purchaser's registration, while rule 4A(5)(b) separately confined clause (c) certificates to the date of issue. The later issue of the supporting certificate did not defeat the concession, because rule 8A governed proof of the claim and not its substantive availability. The concession was therefore admissible from 1 November 1962, not merely from 14 December 1962.

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Issues: Whether the concessional rate of tax under section 6A of the Bihar Sales Tax Act, 1959 could be allowed from 1 November 1962, when section 6A came into force, though the supporting certificates under the rules were actually issued on 14 December 1962.

Analysis: Section 6A(1)(b) required that the sales be to a registered dealer holding a certificate granted by the prescribed authority in the prescribed manner and for the prescribed period, while section 6A(2) required a prescribed declaration from the purchaser. Rule 4A(5)(a) made a certificate under clause (b) co-terminus with the purchaser's registration certificate and did not restrict its operativeness to the date of actual issue. The contrast with rule 4A(5)(b), which expressly limited certificates under clause (c) to validity from the date of issue, showed that clause (b) certificates could validly be made operative from an earlier date. Rule 8A only regulated the manner of substantiating the claim and did not require denial of the concession because of administrative delay in issuing the certificate.

Conclusion: The concessional rate was rightly held admissible from 1 November 1962, and the Tribunal was not justified in restricting it to 14 December 1962.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the statute and rules do not fix the commencement date of a concessional certificate, the prescribed authority may make the certificate operative from an earlier lawful date, and the assessee cannot be denied the concession merely because the certificate was issued later.

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