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country through the introduction of a Goods and
Service Tax, and the phasing out of the multitude
of indirect tax levies, including value added taxes,
that were levied and collected by the Centre and
the States. Section 19 of the CAA 2016, which is
the sunset clause in the said enactment, envisaged
the continuation of the erstwhile system of
taxation for a period of one year from the date of
enactment of the CAA or till such time as the State
Legislatures amended or repealed their respective
VAT legislations, whichever was earlier. When the
State Legislature repealed the KVAT Act, while
simultaneously bringing into force the new State
GST Act, with a savings clause of limited
operation, it effectively acknowledged the absence
of any power to legislate thereafter on the subject
of tax on sale or purchase of goods, except in
respect of the limited commodities for which the
said power was retained under the Constitution. In
respect of all other commodities, the legislative
power of the State was only in respect of taxes on
the supply of goods or services or both, a power
that had to be exercised simultaneously with the
Parliament and not unilaterally or exclusively.
Thus, at the time of repeal of the KVAT Act, and
simultaneous enactment of the State GST Act with
a savings clause therein, the savings clause
operated only to save rights, privileges, immunities,
action taken etc under the erstwhile enactment as
it stood at the time of its repeal, which included
the amendments brought in through the Kerala
Finance Act, 2017. There could not have been any
further legislative exercise by the State legislature
in relation to the repealed KVAT Act.