Purchase tax excluded from sales tax waiver where the eligibility certificate limited relief to actual sales tax remitted.

A revised eligibility certificate and sales tax waiver scheme confined relief to "actual sales tax remitted" during the specified period, so purchase tax could not be counted within the benefit. Although "tax" under the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act may broadly include purchase tax, the narrower wording of the certificate controlled and the scheme itself gave no purchase tax relief. The challenge to the revised certificate also failed because it had been accepted earlier and no apparent error was shown in the Tribunal's order. Accordingly, the refusal to interfere with the demand was upheld.

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Issues: Whether the petitioner was entitled, under the revised eligibility certificate and the sales tax waiver scheme, to treat purchase tax as part of the "actual sales tax remitted" for the purpose of benefit for the relevant period.

Analysis: The revised eligibility certificate restricted the benefit to actual sales tax remitted during the specified period. Though the expression "tax" under the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act may in a generic sense include purchase tax, the language of the certificate used the narrower expression "actual sales tax remitted", showing that the benefit was intended only for sales tax in the restricted sense. The scheme itself did not provide any benefit for purchase tax. A decision relied on by the petitioner, dealing with a different context, was held inapplicable. The challenge to the revised certificate was also rejected, as it had been accepted long earlier and no error apparent on the face of the record was shown in the Tribunal's order.

Conclusion: The petitioner was not entitled to include purchase tax in the eligible sales tax benefit, and the Tribunal's refusal to interfere with the demand was upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a scheme or eligibility certificate limits relief to "actual sales tax remitted", purchase tax cannot be included unless the governing scheme expressly provides for such inclusion.

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