Mid-year tax revision cannot apply where the statute makes revised assessment operative only from the next financial year.

The Kerala Plantations Tax Act treated the first day of the financial year as the valuation date, with revised assessment taking effect only from the next year. A Finance Act amendment to Schedule I was held to do more than alter rates, because it also changed tariff categories and the assessable extent under the charging scheme. The machinery provisions could not be used to give that revised schedule a mid-year operation during 1987-88. The revised Schedule I therefore applied only from 1988-89, and the assessees succeeded on the reference.

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Issues: Whether the revised plantation tax schedule introduced by the Kerala Finance Act 18 of 1987 could be applied during the same financial year 1987-88, and whether the substitution of Schedule I created two assessments within that year.

Analysis: The scheme of the Kerala Plantations Tax Act, 1960 treats the first day of the financial year as the valuation date and makes section 3(1) the charging provision, with section 3(2) requiring the assessed tax to remain payable for the year until the assessable extent is revised, the revised assessment operating only from the next financial year. The amendment introduced by the Finance Act did not merely alter rates simpliciter; it also altered the tariff categories and structure, thereby affecting the assessable extent within the meaning of the Act. The charging provision and the Finance Act had to be read together, and the machinery provisions could not be used to give the revised schedule a mid-year operation where the Act itself contemplated effect from the next financial year.

Conclusion: The revised Schedule I could operate only from the next financial year 1988-89 and not during 1987-88; the assessees succeeded on the question referred.

Final Conclusion: The appeals were not accepted, and the assessment based on the revised schedule for the balance of 1987-88 was not sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a tax revision alters the tariff structure or assessable base under the charging provision, and the statute provides that revised assessment takes effect only from the next financial year, the amended rate cannot be applied mid-year by resort to the machinery provisions.

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