Strict construction of tax exemption notifications upheld where concessional purchase tax was limited to specific entry tax conditions.

An exemption notification granting concessional purchase tax at 2 per cent was confined to goods that had suffered entry tax in the hands of the selling dealer, and the Court held that its express terms could not be expanded to cover a purchasing dealer who had borne entry tax himself. Exemption notifications in fiscal law must be strictly construed, so the Court refused to add, subtract from, or rewrite the stated conditions. The record also did not show that the goods had suffered entry tax in the manner claimed by the petitioners, and the revisional authority had upheld the assessments. The notification was not struck down as discriminatory, and the challenge to the assessment orders failed.

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Issues: Whether the notification granting concessional purchase tax at 2 per cent only when the goods had suffered entry tax in the hands of the selling dealer, and not when the purchasing dealer himself had borne the entry tax, was discriminatory or otherwise liable to be struck down, and whether the assessment orders based on that notification called for interference.

Analysis: The exemption operated under section 12 of the M.P. General Sales Tax Act, 1958 and was expressly confined by the terms of the notification. The Court held that, even if the wording created some practical hardship in cases where the purchasing dealer himself paid entry tax, the language was clear and the Court could not add to, subtract from, or rewrite the conditions imposed by the State. Exemption notifications must be construed strictly, and the Court relied on the settled principle that taxing exemptions cannot be enlarged by interpretation. On the facts, the record also did not establish that the goods had in fact suffered entry tax in the manner asserted by the petitioners, and the revisional authority had upheld the assessments.

Conclusion: The notification was not struck down as discriminatory, and the challenge to the assessment orders failed. The petition was dismissed.

Ratio Decidendi: An exemption notification in fiscal law must be strictly construed according to its express terms, and the Court cannot read into it conditions or benefits not granted by the State.

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