- (1.) Civil Appeal No. 4944 of 2001 is directed against the judgment of the Rajasthan High Court at Jodhpur dated 18th January, 2000, in S.B. Sales Tax Revision No. 1165 of 1999 under Section 86(2) of the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, 1994. The said revision was directed against the judgment dated 9th February, 1999, passed by the Rajasthan Tax Board, Ajmer, allowing the appeal preferred by the respondent/assessee and setting aside the decision of the District Level Screening Committee taken on 19th March, 1998, rejecting the assessee's application for Eligibility Certificate under the Sales Tax New Incentive Scheme for Industries, 1989.
(2.) The assessee, which is the respondent in the present appeal, manufactures stainless steel sheets. Its original installed capacity was 1300 M.T. per annum prior to 16th February, 1995. Subsequently, the assessee expanded its production capacity to 1600 M.T. per annum and achieved the production of more than 85% of the installed capacity between 16th February, 1995 and 16th June, 1996. According to the materials on record, the production of the assessee between April, 1994 to 15th February, 1995 was 1292.913 M.T. and during the year following the date of expansion, the assessee manufactured its own goods to the extent of 1447.489 M.T. It is the case of the assessee that apart from manufacturing its own goods, the assessee had also manufactured goods by doing job work for others and the entire production, taking into account the goods manufactured for its own purposes and the job work, would amount to a total of 2193.76 M.T. In other words, if the job work undertaken by the assessee for others is also taken into consideration, along with the production for its own purposes, such production would constitute an increase in the production to more than 25% of the original installed capacity.
(3.) On 6th July, 1989, the Rajasthan Government, in exercise of its powers conferred by Section 4(2) of the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, 1954, notified the "Sales Tax New Incentive Scheme for Industries, 1989" which exempted the industrial units from payment of tax on the sale of goods manufactured by them within the State in the manner and to the extent and for the period as covered by the notification. Clause 2(f) dealt with expansion of units and defined such expansion in the following terms:- "2(f) Expansion means increase in the value of fixed capital investment by not less than 25% of the net fixed assets of the existing project and accompanied by an increase in the production to the extent of at least 25% of the original licensed/registered capacity. Explanation: The benefits of Sales Tax incentive for Expansion shall be admissible to the eligible units only after they have achieved at least 85% of their licensed/registered capacity before expansion.";