Strict compliance with serial cash memo requirements governs eligibility for tax incentive benefits on manufactured goods sales.

A tax incentive condition requiring serially numbered cash or credit memos for sales of manufactured goods was held mandatory and subject to strict compliance. The tribunal construed "serially numbered" as continuous memo records confined to the manufactured-product sales, so the dealer's manufacturing business remained distinct from other business activity. The absence of the words "separate" or "consecutive" did not create ambiguity, and mixed resale transactions with manufactured-goods sales meant the condition was not met for the disputed period. The dealer was therefore not entitled to the eligibility certificate for that period.

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Issues: Whether failure to issue serially numbered cash/credit memos for sales of manufactured goods disqualified the dealer from obtaining the eligibility certificate under rule 3(66a) of the Bengal Sales Tax Rules, 1941.

Analysis: The requirement in rule 3(66a) was held to be clear and mandatory. The expression "serially numbered" was construed to mean cash memos in a continuous series confined to the sales of the manufactured product, so that the dealer's manufacturing business could be kept distinct from any other business. The absence of the words "separate" or "consecutive" did not create any ambiguity, and the rule was read as requiring strict maintenance of serial cash memo records without break for the relevant sales. Since the applicant had admittedly mixed certain resale transactions with sales of manufactured goods during the disputed period, the condition for the grant of the benefit was not satisfied for that period.

Conclusion: The applicant was not entitled to the eligibility certificate for the period prior to 2 March 1984, and the objection based on non-issuance of serially numbered cash memos failed.

Final Conclusion: Compliance with the statutory condition for the tax incentive had to be strict, and mixed or non-serial issuance of cash memos disentitled the dealer to the benefit for the disputed period.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a tax incentive provision requires serially numbered cash/credit memos for sales of manufactured goods, the condition is mandatory and must be strictly complied with; non-compliance disentitles the dealer to the benefit for the relevant period.

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