TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (9) TMI 72
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....larly, the petitioner in WP No. 4416/2017 viz: Vikas Telecom Pvt. Ltd. (for short `VTPL') is a company and developer of Vikas Telecom Special Economic Zone, Bangalore (for short `SEZ'). 3. The petitioners were granted a letter of approval by the Office of the respondent No. 1 for development, operation and maintenance of SEZs vide a letter dated 16.6.2006 for MPPL and 7.4.2006 for VTPL. Pursuant to the said approvals, the petitioners setup SEZs in Bangalore and have been operating and maintaining the same as of the date. 4. As per the provisions of the Special Economic Zone Act, 2005 ('SEZ Act') read with Rule 5A (a) of the Special Economic Zones Rules, 2006 ('SEZ Rules'), one of the requirements for an SEZ in the Information Technology/Information Technology Enabled Services (IT/ITES) sector is the supply of 24 hours uninterrupted power to the units functioning therein. In view of this requirement, the Petitioners set-up a power generation unit in the 'processing area' of the SEZs for generating and distributing power to the other units located therein. 5. On 27.02.2009, the Director-SEZ Section, Government of India, issued guidelines for Power G....
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....ts. 10. Post the 2015 communication, the statutory form viz. Form ARE-1 issued by the Petitioner in respect of the supplies of HSD to the Respondent No. 3 (and Respondent No. 4 by MPPL) were not being endorsed in the manner stated hereinabove by the authorized officer of the SEZ. In effect, the supplies of HSD for power generation after 01.04.2015 were no longer exempt from excise duty. 11. Soon thereafter, on 16.02.2016, the Director-SEZ Division, Government of India, issued another guideline for power generation, transmission and distribution in SEZS ('the 2016 Guidelines') vide which the 2009 Guidelines were withdrawn and in place thereof, the 2016 Guidelines were made effective with effect from 16.02.2016. Under these guidelines it was clarified that the generation of power in SEZs will once again be carried out as a 'Unit' within the 'Processing Area' and that such Units would be entitled to all the fiscal benefits prescribed in Section 26 of the SEZ Act including, the benefit of duty-free import of raw materials and consumables for the generation of power. 12. In view of the duty-free import / procurement of raw materials and other benefits restored....
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....use the 2015 communications are found in two letters. The text of the first letter does not indicate any intention of the Government to retract the benefits given under the 2009 guidelines (see, paragraph 22 of the decision in Moser Baer India (supra) for the text of the first letter). It is only in the second letter, which is a letter circulated to all Development Commissioners that in the second paragraph, there is a direction to demarcate the power plants located in processing areas as non processing areas (see, paragraph 23 of the decision in Moser Baer India (supra) for the text of the second letter as also Annexure - B to the petition). Clearly, there is an apparent error in the second letter as the statement in the second paragraph is completely contrary to the text of the first paragraph therein. The requirement of demarcating power plants as non-processing areas can at best apply to power plants in processing areas in respect of which letters of approval were not yet issued. v) In any event, the 2016 Guidelines clearly note the fact that representations had been received for restoring the O&M benefits to captive power plants in SEZs and had, accordingly, restored the be....
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....EZ in Bengaluru and have been operating and maintaining the same as of today. 18. As per the provisions of the Special Economic Zone Act, 2005 read with Rule 5A (a) of the Special Economic Zones Rules, 2006, one of the requirements for an SEZ in the Information Technology/Information Technology Enabled Services sector is the supply of 24 hours uninterrupted power to the units functioning therein, and to meet the said requirement, the petitioners set up a power generation unit in the processing area of the SEZs for generating and distributing power to the other units located therein. The 2009 Guidelines issued by the Government of India on 27.2.2009 categorically provided that units set up within the SEZ to generate power located in a processing area would be entitled to all fiscal benefits under Section 6 of the SEZ Act. Therefore, the captive back-up power plant set up by the petitioner within the processing area of the SEZ, which was in the form of diesel generator sets was deemed to be separate unit within the SEZ, and the said unit was thus entitled to all the benefits, facilities and incentives extended to the other units operating tin the SEZ. 19. The 2009 Guidelines were s....