https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=104831 Section 12-A of the Himachal Pradesh General Sales Tax Act and rule 31-A were invalid because they required deduction from payments to works contractors even where the underlying transaction might not attract sales tax or fall within the State's taxing power. As no mechanism existed to confine deduction to cases where tax was actually exigible, the payer was left with arbitrary and uncanalised authority to deduct a prescribed percentage regardless of ultimate liability. Applying the earlier decision on an identical scheme, the Supreme Court held the deduction mechanism exceeded permissible legislative competence and struck down the provision and rule. en-us Tue, 14 Mar 2000 00:00:00 +0530 Sat, 20 Dec 2025 12:55:00 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=104831 Section 12-A of the Himachal Pradesh General Sales Tax Act and rule 31-A were invalid because they required deduction from payments to works contractors even where the underlying transaction might not attract sales tax or fall within the State's taxing power. As no mechanism existed to confine deduction to cases where tax was actually exigible, the payer was left with arbitrary and uncanalised authority to deduct a prescribed percentage regardless of ultimate liability. Applying the earlier decision on an identical scheme, the Supreme Court held the deduction mechanism exceeded permissible legislative competence and struck down the provision and rule. Case-Laws VAT / Sales Tax Tue, 14 Mar 2000 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=104831