Amended sales tax exemption power survives for inter-State sales beyond declaration-form compliance requirements.

The 2002 amendment to section 8(5) of the Central Sales Tax Act did not confine the State Government's exemption power to inter-State sales under section 8(1) alone. Read in context, the added requirement of section 8(4) made declaration-form compliance mandatory only where that sub-section applied, while the express retention of references to both section 8(1) and section 8(2) showed that the power to grant total or partial exemption in public interest continued for section 8(2) transactions. The amendment was therefore treated as withdrawing only the power to waive section 8(4), not as abolishing the broader exemption power.

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Issues: Whether, after the 2002 amendment to section 8(5) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, the State Government's power to grant total or partial exemption in public interest was confined only to inter-State sales covered by section 8(1), or continued to extend to sales covered by section 8(2) as well.

Analysis: The amended provision was read as a whole and in its statutory setting. The insertion of the words requiring fulfilment of section 8(4) was held to make compliance with the declaration-form requirement mandatory only for transactions covered by section 8(1), because section 8(4) itself applies only to sales to the Government or registered dealers. The retention of the express references in section 8(5) to both section 8(1) and section 8(2), and to sales to any person or class of persons, showed that the legislative change was intended to withdraw only the power to waive section 8(4), not to eliminate the State Government's exemption power under section 8(2). The argument that the broader words should be treated as redundant was rejected.

Conclusion: The amended section 8(5) did not restrict the State Government's exemption power to section 8(1) transactions alone, and the power to grant exemption in respect of section 8(2) transactions survived, subject to section 8(4) only where that sub-section applied.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an amended tax exemption provision expressly retains references to both lower-rate categories of sales, the compliance condition attached to one category cannot be used to cut down the continuing exemption power for the other category unless the statute clearly says so.

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