S.43B Payment of licence fee in the nature of rent is not a statutory levy

Advertisement Calcutta High Court held that the fee or charges received by the Government for parting with its exclusive right to manufacture or vend intoxicants is neither a tax nor a duty nor a fee nor a cess. Here in the present case, the KMC’s exclusive right to built market and let out to shop owners on license basis under license agreement dated 15.02.1985 is not a fee as prescribed u/s. 43B of the Act. Since in assessee’s other years i.e. Assessment Years 1997-98 and 1998-99 the department has accepted the decision treating the fee as rent, we applying the principle of consistenc...