Sales tax exemption eligibility under a concessional scheme can be revised where the authorisation certificate rests on ineligible status.

The concessional sales tax scheme under the Assam Industries (Sales Tax Concessions) Act, 1986 and the 1988 Rules applied only to new industrial units meeting the statutory eligibility conditions. An industrial unit that had already taken exemption under an earlier policy did not qualify as a new unit for the later concession regime. An authorisation certificate issued without satisfying those eligibility requirements could not validate an assessment founded on it, because the assessment was affected by jurisdictional error. That error was held amenable to revision under the Assam General Sales Tax Act, 1993, so the revisional authority was competent to interfere with the assessment and the challenge failed.

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Issues: Whether the revisional authority could interfere with the assessment order granting sales tax exemption on the basis of an authorisation certificate issued to an industrial unit that was not eligible under the concessional scheme.

Analysis: The concessional scheme under the Assam Industries (Sales Tax Concessions) Act, 1986 and the Assam Industries (Sales Tax Concession) Rules, 1988 was available only to new industrial units satisfying the statutory conditions. The petitioner had already availed exemption under the earlier industrial policy and therefore did not answer the description of a new unit for the later concession regime. The authorisation certificate, though issued by the competent authority, had been granted without due regard to the statutory eligibility requirements. An assessment based on such an invalid foundation was held to suffer from a jurisdictional error, and such an error was amenable to revisional correction under the Assam General Sales Tax Act, 1993.

Conclusion: The revisional authority was competent to revise the assessment, and the challenge to the revisional order failed.

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