Retrospective tax exemption clarification extends successor manufacturer status to a licensee running the industrial unit.

An amendment to section 4-A(2-B) of the U.P. Trade Tax Act enlarging "successor manufacturer" to include succession by sale, licence, contract, lease, managing agency or other modes was treated as clarificatory and retrospective because it removed a difficulty and supplied an obvious omission in the exemption scheme. The exemption was directed to the industrial unit's character, not merely the identity of its operator, so a change in management or possession could suffice. On that construction, a licensee running the unit fell within the expanded meaning of successor manufacturer and remained entitled to the tax exemption for the unexpired period.

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Issues: Whether the amendment to section 4-A(2-B) of the U.P. Trade Tax Act, 1948, which expanded the expression "successor manufacturer" to include a transferee by sale, licence, contract, lease, managing agency or any other manner, was retrospective or prospective and whether the revisionist, as a licensee running the unit, was entitled to the remaining tax exemption.

Analysis: The exemption scheme under section 4-A was intended to promote new industrial units and industrial development, and earlier judicial interpretation had emphasised that the benefit attached to the unit and its character, not merely to the identity or ownership of the person running it. The amendment to section 4-A(2-B) was introduced to remove difficulty and clarify the meaning of successor manufacturer. Its language and legislative context showed that it supplied an obvious omission, made the provision more explicit, and did not create a new substantive right. The inclusive wording brought within its scope succession by licence and lease, indicating that a change in management, and not merely transfer of title, was sufficient. The amendment therefore operated retrospectively and covered the revisionist.

Conclusion: The amendment was held to be retrospective and clarificatory, and the revisionist was entitled to be treated as a successor manufacturer and to receive the exemption for the unexpired period.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a tax exemption provision is enacted to promote industrial development, and an amendment merely clarifies the pre-existing scope of "successor manufacturer" by supplying an obvious omission, it is retrospective and applies to succession by licence or lease as well as by transfer of title.

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