AI OCR 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2011 (8) TMI 795
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....o new Industrial Units and to existing units on their substantial expansion:- (I) New Industrial units and existing industrial units on their substantial expansion as defined, set up in Growth Centres, Industrial Infrastructure Development Centres (IID Cs), Industrial Estates, Export Processing Zones, Theme, Parks (Food Processing Parks, Software Technology Parks, etc.) as stated in Annexure-I and other areas as notified from time to time by the Central Government, are entitled to:- (a) 100 per cent (hundred per cent) outright Excise Duty exemption for a period of 10 years from the date of commencement of commercial production. (b) 100 per cent income tax exemption for initial period of five years and thereafter 30 per cent for companies and 25 per cent for other than companies for a further period of five years for the entire state of Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh from the date of commencement of commercial production. (II) All New industries in the notified location would be eligible foil capital investment subsidy @ 15 per cent of their investment in plant and machinery, subject to a ceiling of Rs. 30 lacs. The existing units will also be entit....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....of Excise (Goods of Special Importance) Act, 1957 (58 of 1957) and Sub-section (3) of Section 3 of the Additional Duties of Excise (Textiles and Textile Articles) Act, 1978 (40 of 1978), the Central Government, being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest so to do, hereby exempts the goods specified in the First Schedule and the Second Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 (5 of 1986), other than the goods specified in Annexure-I appended hereto, and cleared from a unit located in the Industrial Growth Centre or Industrial Park or Industrial Estate or Industrial Area or Commercial Estate or Scheme Area, as the case may be, specified in Annexure-II appended hereto, from the whole of the duty of excise or additional duty of excise, as the case may be, leviable thereon under any of the said Acts. (2) The exemption contained in this notification shall apply only to the following kinds of units, namely:- (a) new industrial units which have commenced their commercial production on or after the 7th January, 2003; (b) industrial units existing before the 7th January, 2003, but which have undertaken substantial expansion by way of increase in....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....ed 19th November, 2004 in order to claim incentives as provided in the notification dated 10th June, 2003. 10. It transpires that the Deputy Commissioner, Central Excise wrote a letter dated 21st February, 2005 to the Managing Director of State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand (SIDCUL), which is the Nodal Agency for routing the subsidies/incentives under the policy, seeking clarification with regard to the exemption being granted under the Notification No. 50/2003 dated 10th June, 2003. In response to the said letter, SIDCUL replied vide letter dated 3rd March, 2005 indicating that the category "Industrial Activity in Non-Industrial Area" and "Industrial Activity in Non-Industrial Area (to be notified alongwith extension)" refers to existing industrial units only and that the benefit of exemption in the aforesaid two categories would accrue only to an existing industry which goes in for a substantial expansion. 11. The Deputy Commissioner Central Excise on the basis of the clarification given by SIDCUL, informed the Petitioner by its letter dated 18th/21st March, 2005 that exemption from Central Excise is to be given in Khasra No. 54 in village Behe....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....which had undertaken a substantial expansion. It was further submitted that the refusal to grant exemption by the Deputy Commissioner was patently illegal and against the notification dated 10th June, 2003. Further, the clarification issued by SIDCUL, which was only a nodal agency, was wholly illegal and without jurisdiction. The learned Counsel for the Petitioner further submitted that SIDCUL had no authority or power to interpret the notification in its own fashion. 16. It was also urged that the subsequent notification dated 19th May, 2005 amending the earlier notification dated 10th June, 2003 would not make any difference in so far as the grant of exemption to the Petitioner's unit was concerned. In the alternative, it was urged that the notification dated 19th May, 2005 was only prospective in nature and did not affect the Petitioner in claiming exemption of central Excise Duty. In the end, the Petitioner submitted that there was a legitimate expectation to avail central excise exemption under the notification dated 10th June, 2003 and the Respondents are bound by the principle of promissory estoppel. In support of the contention, the Petitioner has placed reliance up....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....d in a designated industrial area and that the area is required to be notified by the State Government which has not been done so far. It was further contended that the heading under category "C" in District Haridwar, namely, "Industrial Activity in Non-Industrial Area (to be notified alongwith extension)" had wrongly been incorporated in the notification by a typographical error while sending the details of the Khasra numbers to the Government of India and that a letter has been sent to the Government for necessary correction. The submission of SIDCUL is, that category "C" in District Haridwar applies only to existing industrial units only. 21. In the light of the aforesaid submissions, we have heard Mr. Sharad Sharma, the learned Senior Counsel assisted by Mr. Gajendra Tripathi, the learned Counsel for the Petitioner, Mr. B. K. Gupta, the learned Additional Advocate General for the Respondent Nos. 1 and 2, Mr. Vipul Sharma, the learned Counsel assisted by Mr. H. M. Bhatia, the learned Counsel for the Respondent No. 3 and Mr. Arvind Vashisht, the learned Counsel for the Respondent No. 6. 22. The sole question which is required to be considered is whether the Petiti....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....es mentioned under District Haridwar namely,- (A) Existing Industrial Estates, (B) Proposed Industrial Area/Estates, (C) Industrial Activity in Non-Industrial Area (to be notified alongwith extension) and, (D) Expansion of Existing Estates does not in any manner indicate that the said categories (A), (B), (C) and (D) relates to an existing unit or to a new unit. Consequently, we are of the opinion that category "C" does not specify that it relates to an existing unit only. The stand taken by the opposite party is patently erroneous, misconceived and cannot be accepted. 27. SIDCUL itself had clarified that the words "to be notified algonwith extension" under category "C" was a typographical error, which in our opinion is correct and we further hold that the said words "to be notified alongwith extension" does not in any manner indicate that another notification was required to be issued under Section 5A of the Central Excise Act, 1944 to claim the benefit of exemption. The notification dated 10th June, 2003 by itself was sufficient to claim the benefit of exemption. 28. In so far as the notification dated 19th May, 2005 is conc....