Tax exemption under an incentive scheme begins on a complete application date, not on later certificate issuance.

A new industrial unit under the Rajasthan Sales Tax Incentive Scheme for Industries, 1987 was treated as entitled to tax exemption from the date of filing a complete application for an eligibility certificate, rather than from the later date of certificate issuance. The scheme language, prior judicial views on comparable incentive schemes, and a later administrative notification were read as supporting the principle that a complete application triggers the benefit unless the scheme clearly provides otherwise. On that basis, the exemption was held to operate from 8 July 1988, the application date.

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Issues: Whether a new industrial unit under the Rajasthan Sales Tax Incentive Scheme for Industries, 1987 was entitled to exemption from the date of filing a complete application for an eligibility certificate, rather than from the later date of issuance of the certificate.

Analysis: The entitlement under the Incentive Scheme was examined in light of the scheme language and the prior judicial view that eligibility certificates under such incentive schemes were intended to operate from the date of application, where the application was complete in all respects. The Court noted that the legal position had already been affirmed in earlier decisions dealing with comparable incentive schemes, and that the later administrative notification also reflected the same principle by making the benefit available from the date of a complete application.

Conclusion: The petitioner was held entitled to the benefit of the Incentive Scheme from 8 July 1988, the date of application, and not from the later date of issuance of the eligibility certificate.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an incentive scheme is designed to confer tax exemption on a new industrial unit, and the application for eligibility is complete, the benefit operates from the date of application unless the scheme clearly provides otherwise.

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