Case Law Details
SRF Ltd. Vs State of Madhya Pradesh And Others (Madhya Pradesh High Court)
The issue under consideration is whether the petitioner is eligible for exemption from payment of entry tax based on certificates granted under Madhya Pradesh Udyog Nivesh Samvardhan Sahayta Yojna?
High Court states that, in the present case, as the exemption certificate has been granted in the year 2017 only, the petitioner was justified in immediately approaching the Authorities for grant of exemption and his request could not have been turned in the manner and method it has been done by the respondents. The petitioner initially preferred Writ Petition ie., W.P.No. 6666/2010. However, at the relevant point of time, there was no exemption certificate granted in favour of the petitioner and the Writ Petition was withdrawn with liberty to file a fresh Writ Petition. The petitioner has later on preferred Writ Petition ie., W.P. No. 1421/2014, W.P.No. 1323/2015 and 8845/2015 and they were withdrawn only because exemption certificate was issued in favour of the petitioner and the reassessment in respect of 4 years (2007-08 to 2010-11) was pending at the relevant point of time. However, the same has not been done and, therefore, the inaction on the part of the Department is bad in law. The assessment orders passed by the Department for four years ie., 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11 deserves to be set aside and are accordingly hereby set aside. It is nobody’s case that the exemption certificate has been withdrawn or was erroneously granted and the respondent State has admitted grant of exemption certificate and, therefore, once exemption certificate was granted, the Department cannot take advantage of technicalities, especially when the certificate itself was granted in the year 2017 with retrospective effect. Resultantly, the present Writ Petition is allowed.
FULL TEXT OF THE HIGH COURT ORDER /JUDGEMENT
The petitioner before this Court, a Company registered under the Companies Act, 1956, has filed this present petition claiming exemption from payment of entry tax on account of the certificate granted to the petitioner under the Madhya Pradesh Udyog Nivesh Samvardhan Sahayta Yojna, 2004 and 2010. The contention of the petitioner is that the petitioner Company is engaged in the manufacturing of technical textile, chemicals, engineering, plastics packaging films, refrigerant gases at various locations in India and overseas. It employs directly and indirectly 9000 employees and the Company has established an industrial unit at Indore, Special Economic Zone (Pithampur) M.P. The unit which was established at Indore is engaged in the manufacturing process of polyester film which started its operation in 2004 and was entitled for various benefits and tax exemption under the Special Economic Zone Scheme announced by the Central Government as well as the Government of India. The unit of the petitioner company which was established in 2004 is referred by the tax department as principal unit and in 2009 expansion was carried out and the unit was referred as expansion unit and in 2010 further expansion was carried out and the department referred the unit as diversified unit. The contention of the petitioner is that under the Madhya Pradesh Udyog Nivesh Samvardhan Sahayta Yojna, 2004 and 2010 vide notification dated 4/4/2005 and 13/12/2010, the State has made provisions for exemption from payment of entry tax to all the industries in the State subject to certain terms and conditions. As per the aforesaid notification the eligible Companies are entitled for 100% exemption in respect of payment of entry tax. The petitioner company submitted an application for grant of exemption of entry tax for its new principal unit, expansion unit and diversified unit as they are located in Special Economic Zone on 5/3/2013 and pursuant to the application submitted by the petitioner company, three exemption certificates were granted by the M.P. Trade and Investment Facilitation Corporation Ltd., granting exemption in respect of payment of entry tax from 23/7/2004 to 8/5/2015 in respect of all three industrial units keeping in the provisions as contained u/S. 10 of the Madhya Pradesh Sthaniya Kshetra Me Maal Ke Pravesh Par Kar Adhiniyam, 1976. As already stated earlier, the certificate was granted on 13/2/2017 and on account of grant of certificate with retrospective effect all entry tax assessment orders also for the year 2004 to 2013 and subsequent assessment orders also upto 2015 became null and void because the exemption was granted for a period of 9 years that too with retrospective effect. The contention of the petitioner is that the Commercial Tax Department was under an obligation to grant 100% exemption of entry tax amount, interest and penalties for the entire period of 9 years in terms of the certificate issued. However, the respondent State has granted exemption only in respect of 5 assessment years i.e., 2004 – 2005 to 2006 – 2007 and 2011 – 2012 to 2012 – 2013. The petitioner as the re-assessment for four years was not done i.e., 2007 – 2008 upto 2010 – 2011 wrote letters to the authorities dated 16/2/2017 and 20/2/2017 along with the exemption certificate and again wrote letters on 29/8/2017, 9/10/2017, 2/8/2018, 25/10/2018, 14/12/2018, 8/1/2019, 8/7/2019 and 25/2/2020 for granting exemption for the remaining years. However, nothing was done in the matter. The petitioner has prayed for the following reliefs:
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