Strict construction of electricity duty exemption notification limited relief to industries setting up generating units after the cut-off date.

An exemption notification under the Madhya Pradesh Electricity Duty Act was construed strictly as a fiscal exemption and read as a whole. On its plain and unambiguous language, the notification was held to benefit only industrial units that established their own generating units after 10.12.1980 and became producers generating electricity for their own industrial consumption. It was not open to dissect the notification so as to extend the exemption to units already established before that date. The stated effect was that pre-10.12.1980 generating units were outside the exemption.

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Issues: Whether the exemption notification issued under Section 3B of the Madhya Pradesh Electricity Duty Act, 1949 extended to all industries running their own generating units, including those established before 10.12.1980, or only to industries establishing such generating units after that date.

Analysis: The notification granted exemption, with effect from 10.12.1980, to all producers who run industries in respect of electrical energy consumed by them for the purposes of the industries run by them. The governing principle applied was that an exemption notification in fiscal law must be strictly construed and read as a whole. On a plain reading, the language of the notification was found to be unambiguous and to reflect an intention to exempt only those industrial units which established their generating units after 10.12.1980 and thereby became producers generating electrical energy for their own industrial consumption. The notification could not be dissected to extend the benefit to units established earlier.

Conclusion: The exemption did not cover industries that had established generating units prior to 10.12.1980. The appellants were not entitled to the benefit of the notification.

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