Statutory amendment overrides tax exemption notification; eligibility certificate and promissory estoppel cannot defeat the amended scheme.

A sales tax exemption tied to a statutory notification ceased to apply once the notification was amended to place the relevant manufacturing process in the negative list from 15 January 1998. The exemption continued only up to 14 January 1998, because the Government retained power under the enabling provision to vary or cancel the notification. A departmental exemption order and eligibility certificate could not override the amended statutory notification, and promissory estoppel could not be used to preserve a tax concession contrary to the statute.

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Issues: (i) Whether the assessee was entitled to sales tax exemption under the statutory notification after the amendment adding the relevant manufacturing process to the negative list. (ii) Whether the order of exemption and the eligibility certificate could prevail over the later statutory amendment, including on the plea of promissory estoppel.

Issue (i): Whether the assessee was entitled to sales tax exemption under the statutory notification after the amendment adding the relevant manufacturing process to the negative list.

Analysis: The exemption under the notification was tied to manufacture of goods and the Government retained power under the enabling provision to vary or cancel the notification. The amended notification expressly brought the relevant process within the exclusion clause with effect from 15 January 1998. Once the amendment came into force, the process ceased to qualify for exemption under the original notification for the period thereafter.

Conclusion: The assessee was entitled to the benefit only up to 14 January 1998 and not thereafter.

Issue (ii): Whether the order of exemption and the eligibility certificate could prevail over the later statutory amendment, including on the plea of promissory estoppel.

Analysis: A departmental exemption order cannot override a statutory notification issued under the Act. The eligibility certificate and exemption order operated only subject to the governing notification as amended. No vested right to a tax concession arises against a statute, and promissory estoppel cannot be used to defeat the statutory amendment, especially where no adequate factual foundation for detriment was established.

Conclusion: The exemption order and eligibility certificate could not override the amended notification, and the plea of promissory estoppel failed.

Final Conclusion: The statutory amendment controlled the field, the assessee's claim for exemption beyond the amendment date was unsustainable, and the challenge to the notice did not succeed.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory notification amended under the enabling power prevails over any inconsistent administrative exemption order or eligibility certificate, and promissory estoppel cannot be invoked to continue a tax concession contrary to the amended statutory scheme.

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