Deeming provision in taxing amendment applied substituted plantation tax rates from the start of the assessment year.

Plantation tax was treated as a tax on land within the State's legislative competence, and the substituted Schedule in the Kerala Finance Act, 1987 was read as a deliberate enhancement of plantation tax rates for assessment year 1987-88. Because the levy was tied to the relevant assessment year and the amendment contained a deeming provision making it effective from 1 April 1987, the rates in the amended Schedule applied notwithstanding that the Act formally commenced on 1 July 1987. The challenge to collection under the earlier schedule therefore failed, and the State could levy tax for the year on the substituted basis.

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Issues: Whether the amended plantation tax schedule introduced by the Kerala Finance Act, 1987 applied for the assessment year 1987-88, notwithstanding that the Act was brought into force on 1 July 1987 with a deeming clause making it effective from 1 April 1987.

Analysis: The plantation tax was treated as a tax on lands within the State's legislative competence. The amendment policy, the preamble, and the substituted Schedule showed a clear legislative intent to rationalise and enhance plantation tax rates for the financial year 1987-88. In taxing statutes, the ordinary rule is that the law in force for the relevant assessment year governs the levy, and where the Legislature substitutes the Schedule and expresses the intention that the amendment should operate from the beginning of the financial year, the substituted rates are to be applied for that year. The date on which the Act formally came into force did not defeat the deeming provision or the scheme of assessment linked to 1 April.

Conclusion: The amended rates under the Kerala Finance Act, 1987 were applicable for assessment year 1987-88, and the challenge to collection on the earlier schedule failed.

Final Conclusion: The writ petitions were liable to be rejected, and the State was entitled to levy plantation tax for the relevant year on the basis of the substituted Schedule.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a taxing amendment substitutes the Schedule and contains a deeming provision making it effective from an earlier date, the substituted rate applies for the relevant assessment year if that year is the unit of levy and the legislative intent to operate from the start of the year is clear.

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