VAT concession on natural gas applies only from the amendment date; circular cannot expand the earlier notification.

The concessional 3% VAT rate on natural gas under the Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act applied only to the class of purchasers covered by the notification dated 24.08.2017. The later amendment dated 13.10.2017 expressly extended the benefit to taxable persons registered under the Maharashtra Goods and Services Tax Act only from 14.10.2017. A trade circular could not enlarge the scope of the earlier substantive notification or create retrospective entitlement to the concession. The reduced rate therefore became available only from the amendment date, and the challenge to the circular failed on merits.

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Issues: Whether the petitioners were entitled to the concessional rate of 3% VAT on natural gas for the period 24.08.2017 to 13.10.2017 and whether Trade Circular No. 3T of 2018 could be quashed on the ground that it denied that benefit to taxable persons registered under the Maharashtra Goods and Services Tax Act.

Analysis: The concessional entry introduced into Schedule B by the notification dated 24.08.2017 was framed under Section 9(1) of the Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act, 2002 and operated only for the class of purchasers described in that notification. The later notification dated 13.10.2017 expressly amended the entry with effect from 14.10.2017 to include taxable persons registered under the Maharashtra Goods and Services Tax Act and to expand the meaning of registered dealer and goods accordingly. The circulars could not enlarge the scope of the earlier substantive notification or confer a benefit for an earlier period when the amended class was not included in the notification itself. The benefit of the reduced rate therefore arose only from the date on which the amendment expressly extended it.

Conclusion: The petitioners were not entitled to the concessional rate for the intervening period, and the impugned Trade Circular was not liable to be quashed.

Final Conclusion: The writ petitions failed on merits because the earlier notification did not extend the tax concession to taxable persons under the Maharashtra Goods and Services Tax Act, and the benefit became available only from the later amendment date.

Ratio Decidendi: A trade circular cannot extend a tax concession beyond the scope and effective date of the substantive notification issued under the taxing statute.

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