VAT exemption for bound election manuals and compendia cannot be overridden by administrative insistence on tax deduction.

Printing compendium, handbooks, manuals and similar election materials was treated as exempt from VAT because the supplied items were physically verified as bound books falling within entry 5 of the First Schedule to the Assam Value Added Tax Act, 2003. A clarification issued by the Commissioner of Taxes under section 105 was treated as a binding quasi-judicial determination on the exempt status of the goods, and an administrative department could not override it or insist on VAT deduction unless set aside by the proper forum. The transaction's character did not remove the statutory exemption attached to the goods.

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Issues: Whether the printing of compendium, hand books, manuals and similar election materials was exempt from VAT under section 9 read with entry 5 of the First Schedule to the Assam Value Added Tax Act, 2003, and whether the Election Department could disregard the Commissioner of Taxes' clarification issued under section 105 of that Act.

Analysis: The materials supplied were found on physical verification to be bound books with cover and thus fell within the exempted category of books, periodicals and journals under entry 5 of the First Schedule. The clarification issued by the Commissioner of Taxes in exercise of statutory authority under section 105 was a quasi-judicial determination binding on the administrative department unless set aside by the proper appellate forum or a court. An executive authority could not override that determination by treating the supply as taxable or by insisting on deduction of VAT. The Court also accepted that the nature of the transaction did not alter the statutory exemption attached to the goods supplied.

Conclusion: The printing materials were exempt from VAT and the departmental orders insisting on deduction of VAT could not stand.

Ratio Decidendi: Where goods are statutorily exempt and the competent taxing authority has conclusively clarified their exempt status in exercise of quasi-judicial power, an administrative department cannot disregard or supersede that determination unless it is lawfully set aside.

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