https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=162271 Administrative circulars under the Karnataka Sales Tax Act cannot be treated as retrospectively operative without statutory authority. A circular dated 12 April 1996 could not govern assessment years preceding its issue, even though the underlying provision was later amended or validated retrospectively. The later circular dated 23 October 1999 correctly reflected section 5-C as an independent, multi-point levy on transfer of the right to use goods; once the earlier circular was found inconsistent with that charging provision, it could not continue to bind assessments for the relevant period. Contemporanea expositio, benefit of doubt, and the validation clause did not displace the plain statutory meaning. en-us Thu, 06 Oct 2005 00:00:00 +0530 Fri, 21 Feb 2014 17:56:16 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=162271 Administrative circulars under the Karnataka Sales Tax Act cannot be treated as retrospectively operative without statutory authority. A circular dated 12 April 1996 could not govern assessment years preceding its issue, even though the underlying provision was later amended or validated retrospectively. The later circular dated 23 October 1999 correctly reflected section 5-C as an independent, multi-point levy on transfer of the right to use goods; once the earlier circular was found inconsistent with that charging provision, it could not continue to bind assessments for the relevant period. Contemporanea expositio, benefit of doubt, and the validation clause did not displace the plain statutory meaning. Case-Laws VAT and Sales Tax Thu, 06 Oct 2005 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=162271