Mandatory filing period for sales tax exemption under Rule 28-A barred belated applications and retrospective relief.

Rule 28-A(5) required an eligible industrial unit seeking sales tax exemption to apply within 90 days of commercial production or of the rule's commencement, whichever was later, and that period was treated as mandatory. The rule provided no power to condone delay or to entertain a belated application, and a claim that exemption could still be granted retrospectively for the 90 days before filing was rejected as inconsistent with the rule's language and scheme. Commercial production was understood to begin when the unit first started selling its products in the market. As the application was filed after the prescribed period, the exemption claim was not maintainable.

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Issues: Whether an application for sales tax exemption under Rule 28-A had to be filed within 90 days of the unit going into commercial production, and whether delay beyond that period could be condoned or the benefit granted retrospectively.

Analysis: Rule 28-A(5) required an eligible industrial unit seeking exemption to apply within 90 days of the date of commercial production or the date of commencement of the rule, whichever was later. The period prescribed was held to be mandatory. The rule contained no provision enabling any authority to condone delay or entertain an application filed after the stipulated period. The plea that exemption could still be claimed for the 90 days preceding the application was found contrary to the plain language and scheme of the rule. Commercial production was understood to begin when the unit first started sale of its products in the market.

Conclusion: The application having been filed beyond the prescribed period, rejection of the claim for exemption was upheld.

Final Conclusion: The writ petition failed because compliance with the 90-day filing requirement under the exemption rule was treated as a condition precedent, and belated applications were not entertainable.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a fiscal exemption rule prescribes a fixed period for making an application and does not provide for condonation, the limitation is mandatory and an application filed beyond that period cannot be entertained or granted retrospectively.

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