- (1.)The present writ petition has been filed by the petitioner, a proprietorship concern, seeking, inter alia, sales tax exemption in respect of production of computer stationery under the Assam Industries (Sales Tax Concessions) Scheme, 1997 and Assam Industries (Tax Remission) Scheme, 2005 in terms of the industrial policies of Assam issued by the State Government from time to time. It is the case of the petitioner that for the purpose of boosting industrial development of this region, the Government of India as well as the State of Assam had been issuing various industrial policies from time to time and granted several incentives including exemption on various kinds of taxes. In 1997, the Government of Assam announced an industrial policy which spelt out various incentives, and one such incentive was giving sales tax exemption to the industries engaged in certain manufacturing activities. As per the said exemption, all new industries and existing industries going in for expansion/diversification/modernization would be granted sales tax exemption on sale of finished products and purchase of raw materials as per the scale mentioned therein. In pursuance of the aforesaid Industrial Policy, the Governor of Assam, in exercise of powers conferred by subsection (4) of section 9 of the Assam General Sales Tax Act, 1993, framed the Assam Industries (Sales Tax Concessions) Scheme, 1997 for grant of relief by way of sales tax exemption to the eligible industrial units. Subsequently, in the year 2003, the Government of Assam issued another industrial policy giving various other incentives including sales tax exemption which was granted under the earlier industrial policy.
(2.)Upon enactment of the Assam Value Added Tax Act, 2003, a new scheme was introduced substituting the earlier Scheme of 1997 framed under the old industrial policy, which is known as the Assam Industries (Tax Remission) Scheme, 2005 under the Assam Value Added Tax Act, 2003 and continued the earlier sales tax exemption by way of remission of tax. Under the aforesaid Assam Industries (Tax Remission) Scheme, 2005, it has been, however, provided that certain categories shall not be eligible for such benefit under the Scheme which included "paper cutting from roll paper".
(3.)The petitioner states that pursuant to the aforesaid industrial policy of Assam, the petitioner set up a small-scale industrial unit for manufacturing finished products, namely, battery, inverter, UPS, computer continuous addicting rolls, fax rolls, printer, ribbon, etc.