Document Fragment View

Matching Fragments

4. The petitioner, after receipt of show cause notice, by letter dated 2-5-2002, requested the Commissioner to furnish reasons, if any, recorded by him for proposing to revise the assessment orders. The Commissioner by letter dated 10-5-2002, furnished the following reasons :

"It is noticed from the records that the Registration Certificate as .SSI granted to you by the Directorate of Industries for barge manufacturing unit is a conditional one as the same is subject to the condition that the unit is not entitled for any type of special assistance under the Government's SSI Programme. The Directorate of Industries has also confirmed vide their letter No. 1/67/87/CST/Cert/DIM/133 dated 13-11-1995 that your nit is a not entitled for any type of special assistance under Government's SSI Programme including sales tax exemption."

5. In the course of assessment of petitioner's turnover for the year 1986-87, the Sales Tax Officer by his letter dated 7-2-1991 had invited petitioner's objection to his proposal to refuse exemption from sale tax for sale of barges under the said entry 68 on the ground that the Directorate of Industries had imposed a condition in the Certificate of Registration as a Small Scale Industry that the said unit shall not be entitled to the special assistance under Government's SSI Programme. The petitioner filed his objections under letter dated February 25, 1991. After considering the petitioner's objections the Sale Tax Officer dropped his proposal but disallowed exemption on a different ground, namely; that the petitioner's unit had gone into production before 1-7-1983, the date on which the said Entry 68 was amended.

14. In the submission of the petitioner, under Section 27(3), the Commissioner can invoke revisional power only for good reasons which can bear legal and logical scrutiny. If the reasons given are bad, the Commissioner cannot clutch at the jurisdiction. The next submission is that upon request to furnish reasons recorded, the Commissioner disclosed vide his reply dated 10-5-2002 that his conclusion was based on two grounds, namely;

(a) that the registration certificate as SSI (Small Scale Industry) granted to the petitioner is a conditional one as the same is subject to the condition that the unit is not entitled to any type of special assistance under Government's SSI Programme; and, (b) the Directorate of Industries has also confirmed vide its letter No. 1/67/87/CST/Cert/DIM/133 dated 13-11-1995 that the petitioner's unit is not entitled to any type of special assistance under the Government's SSI programme including Sales Tax exemption, both the reasons are bad in law and therefore, cannot justify the invocation of suo motu revisional power by the Commissioner under Section 27(3).

(a) The small scale industry must have been set up on or after 1-7-1983;
(b) Production must have been started on or after 1-7-1983; and
(c) The sale of the goods manufactured must have been on or after 1-7-

1983.

He urged that in the present case, the petitioner's industry, though registered on 5-3-1985, had been admittedly set up much before 1-7-1983. Therefore, on this count alone exemption under the said entry is not available for the petitioner. In order to substantiate this submission, he placed reliance on SSI registration Certificate and the date of commencement of the production by the petitioner's industry mentioned therein as May, 1982, much before 1-7-1983. He also contended that the certificate in respect of the petitioner's industry as SSI is conditional one; inasmuch as, the registration certificate itself shows that the unit is not entitled for any special assistance under the Government SSI Programme. He also placed reliance on the communication issued by the Directorate of Industries, the author of the registration certificate, who himself has reiterated and clarified vide his letter dated 13-11-1995 that the unit was not entitled for any type of special assistance under Government's SSI programme which included exemption under Sales-tax legislation.