Statutory exemption deadlines and separate sales tax schemes operate independently; promissory estoppel cannot override express filing conditions.

Statutory exemption under rule 3(66) of the Bengal Sales Tax Rules was treated as conditional on the prescribed filing deadlines, and the different dates for registered and unregistered dealers were held to be a valid classification. At the same time, withdrawal of already granted eligibility certificate renewals was found unjustified where the dealer had acted on the authority's conduct and the revisional interference was arbitrary on the special facts. The commentary also explains that exemption schemes under the 1941 Act and the 1954 Act operate independently, so the first-sale date must be taken from the relevant enactment, and that promissory estoppel cannot override statutory time limits.

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Issues: (i) Whether the amended proviso and amended clause (iv) of rule 3(66) of the Bengal Sales Tax Rules, 1941, fixing the last date for application for eligibility certificate, were valid and constitutional; (ii) whether the revisional authority was justified in withdrawing the eligibility certificate and renewals granted to the assessee under rule 3(66) for the last two years on the footing that rule 3(66a) applied; (iii) whether, under the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1954, the exemption period for notified commodities had to be counted from the first sale of goods taxable under the 1941 Act or from the first sale of notified commodities taxable under the 1954 Act; and (iv) whether the applicants who applied late or under the wrong rule could claim relief on the basis of promissory estoppel or a construction that kept the time-limit open-ended.

Issue (i): Whether the amended proviso and amended clause (iv) of rule 3(66) of the Bengal Sales Tax Rules, 1941, fixing the last date for application for eligibility certificate, were valid and constitutional.

Analysis: The amended clause (iv) fixed April 14, 1983 as the last date for registered dealers and March 31, 1983 for unregistered dealers, while the proviso regulated applications on or after April 1, 1983. The time-limit formed part of the statutory conditions for claiming exemption. The Tribunal followed its earlier view that the date fixed in the main clause could not be treated as open-ended for registered dealers, and it found no arbitrariness or unreasonable classification in treating registered and unregistered dealers differently.

Conclusion: The amendment and proviso were held valid and not violative of article 14.

Issue (ii): Whether the revisional authority was justified in withdrawing the eligibility certificate and renewals granted to the assessee under rule 3(66) for the last two years on the footing that rule 3(66a) applied.

Analysis: The assessee had obtained eligibility certificate and renewals covering five years, had refrained from collecting tax in reliance on those renewals, and had acted on the basis of the authority's conduct. The Tribunal held that, in the special facts, the later withdrawal of renewals for the last two years was less than reasonable and arbitrary. The superior revisional power could not be exercised mechanically to undo benefits already granted and acted upon, especially when the granting authority had all relevant materials before it.

Conclusion: The revisional order withdrawing the renewals for the last two years was set aside and the earlier renewals under rule 3(66) were restored.

Issue (iii): Whether, under the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1954, the exemption period for notified commodities had to be counted from the first sale of goods taxable under the 1941 Act or from the first sale of notified commodities taxable under the 1954 Act.

Analysis: The Tribunal held that the expressions used in the two exemption schemes were distinct and operated independently. The 1941 Act scheme concerned first sale of manufactured goods, while the 1954 Act notification concerned first sale of notified commodities. There was no basis to import a common starting point from the earlier Act into the later notification. The date of first sale in the eligibility certificate under the 1954 Act had been wrongly entered by reference to the earlier Act, but the certificate itself remained otherwise valid.

Conclusion: The exemption under the 1954 Act was held to run independently from the first sale of notified commodities under that Act, and the eligibility certificate was restored with correction of the first-sale date.

Issue (iv): Whether the applicants who applied late or under the wrong rule could claim relief on the basis of promissory estoppel or a construction that kept the time-limit open-ended.

Analysis: The Tribunal held that the statutory time-limits were not open-ended, that liability to pay tax was only a condition precedent and did not shift the commencement point of the exemption period, and that mere publication of a statutory scheme did not amount to a promise sufficient for promissory estoppel. In the cases where the applicants themselves applied under rule 3(66a) and the authorities consistently granted certificates under that rule, there was no basis to rewrite the applications or extend the exemption beyond the period actually admissible under law.

Conclusion: The pleas of open-ended limitation and promissory estoppel failed.

Final Conclusion: The batch was disposed of by partly allowing the applications relating to the first assessee and rejecting the remaining two applications. The amended rule was upheld, the revisional interference in the first two matters was undone, and the other two writ applications were dismissed.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory exemption scheme must be applied according to its express conditions and time-limits, but a revisional authority will not be justified in undoing granted relief where the assessee has acted on the authority's own conduct and the withdrawal is arbitrary in the special facts of the case; separate exemption schemes under different taxing enactments operate independently unless the statute expressly provides otherwise.

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