Retrospective ICU tax exemption clarified the original luxury tax levy and excluded ICU charges for earlier periods.

A clarificatory amendment and notification excluding ICU charges from luxury tax under the Karnataka Tax on Luxuries Act were treated as retrospective because they explained the pre-existing scope of the levy rather than imposing a new burden. Applying the principle that declaratory or explanatory provisions ordinarily operate retrospectively, the court read the pre- and post-amendment texts together and treated the ICU exclusion as part of the original charging framework. ICU charges were therefore not exigible to luxury tax for the relevant earlier assessment years.

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Issues: Whether the 2016 notification and amendment to Section 3-E of the Karnataka Tax on Luxuries Act, 1979, exempting ICU charges from luxury tax, operated retrospectively or only prospectively.

Analysis: The amendment inserted the exclusion for facilities provided in an Intensive Care Unit and the notification stated that luxury tax on ICU facilities was to be exempted. The governing principle applied was that a legislative provision which is clarificatory, declaratory, or explanatory of the pre-existing law ordinarily operates retrospectively, whereas a provision creating a new burden is presumed prospective. Reading the pre-amendment and post-amendment texts together, the exemption was treated as a clarification of the original levy provision rather than a new exemption introduced for the first time.

Conclusion: The amendment and notification were held to apply retrospectively to the relevant earlier assessment years, and the ICU charges were held not exigible to luxury tax for the subject periods.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory amendment that clarifies or declares the pre-existing legal position is retrospective in operation, and an exemption for a specified component of the original levy will relate back where it merely explains the scope of the charging provision.

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