TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2007 (9) TMI 576
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....ial Tribunal, which rejected the contention and confirmed the order of the Assistant Commissioner by its order dated October 28, 2002. The facts are as follows: The writ petitioner is the proprietor of the company Bhoomi Bottling, which carried on the business of purchasing bulk liquified petroleum gas and stored the gas in its storage point; from there it refilled the LPG gas in the cylinders and sold the same to the consumers through dealers appointed by it. The petitioner applied for and obtained an eligibility certificate from the District Industries Centre for sales tax deferral not exceeding Rs. 75,53,400 as interest-free sales tax for nine years from the month in which the petitioner's unit commenced commercial production, i.e., from June 23, 1995 to June 22, 1996. Pursuant to the same, the petitioner entered into an agreement with the territorial Assistant Commissioner, the first respondent herein on June 28, 1996. The agreement provides for various conditions that have to be observed by the petitioner and also provides for repayments schedules. According to the petitioner, the petitioner was carrying on its activity from 2000 onwards till 2002. Subsequently, the Gov....
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....stored and after refilling it in the cylinders sold the same to the general public through distributors. However, from 2002 onwards, it was doing the same activity of refilling the gas in cylinders as a job work to HPCL and hence, the activity of the petitioner cannot be regarded as a violation of condition No. 9 or 11. On that ground, the order of the Assistant Commissioner is not in accordance with the agreement and the order of the Tribunal confirming the order is also not sustainable. Hence, the order has to be set aside. On the other hand, learned Government Advocate appearing for the respondents submitted that once the petitioner entered into an agreement with the respondent authorities that would tantamount to a concluded contract and any breach or violation has to be dealt with as per the agreed covenant. He further contended that the consequence of breach of agreement has been categorically stated in the agreement. The petitioner having agreed to the conditions contemplated in the agreement and signed the same, cannot now come out and say that the condition contained is otherwise. He further contended that the benefit has been granted to the petitioner for manufactur....
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....kward taluks, from among the 105 backward taluks, and in the industrial estates developed by any of the Government agencies including Madras Export Processing Zone, Madras Metropolitan Development Authority, the scheme of interest-free sales tax loan/deferral ordered in the Government order first, third and fourth read above is modified as follows: (i) For the existing units undertaking expansion or diversification, deferral of sales tax will be given for nine years and the total amount thus given shall not exceed 80 per cent of the additional investment made in fixed assets. (ii) For the new units, the total amount of deferral of sales tax will be given for nine years to the full extent of the total investment made in fixed assets. (b) The interest-free sales tax deferral scheme is extended to the expansion (Part I) as well as to the starting of new industries (Part II) in other areas also where this scheme was not in vogue hitherto. The deferral of sales tax for the industries in these areas will be for five years, subject to a minimum of 60 per cent of the total investment made in fixed assets in the case of new industries and 50 per cent of the additional investment in....
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....e petitioner therein. In that case, the scheme of interest-free deferral has not been taken into consideration for resolution of the dispute therein but the mere covenant contained in the agreement has been taken into consideration and held that the covenant has not stated that there should be a manufacturing activity. Hence, the above decision is not applicable to the facts of the present case particularly when the scheme as extracted above required the activity of the petitioner to generate the sales tax, then only they are entitled to get the deferral or waiver of the sales tax that is postponement of the sales tax for a later period. The counsel also relied on the decision of the Supreme Court in Commercial Taxes Officer, Jodhpur v. Vishnu Metals reported in [2006] 148 STC 634. We are of the view that the above case is also not advancing the case of the petitioner as that was held in a different context. In that case, under the Sales Tax Incentive Scheme for Industries, 1989 issued under section 4(2) of the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, 1954, exemption was granted from sales tax on the expansion of sales within the State of goods manufactured by industrial units. Clause 2(f) of t....