V.BHAVANI SUBBAROYAN,J. - (1.) The present Tax Cases were filed against the findings of Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal in its common order, dated 02.07.2013 made in CTSA Nos.131, 139, 140, 286 and 293 of 2002 and the following questions of law were raised by the petitioner in all the Tax Cases:- a) Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Appellate Tribunal is right in law in holding that the Effluent Treatment cum Bio Gas Plant erected by the petitioner is not entitled to exemption as per Notification No.II(1)/CTRE/113(c)/87 dated 10.09.1987 issued in terms of Sec. 17 of the TNGST Act ? b) Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Appellate Tribunal is right in law in applying the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Orient Traders vs. CTO, Tirupathi (13 VST 530) to the effect that an exemption notification has to be construed strictly, against the petitioner when the same is to be applied in favour of the petitioner insofar as the petitioner is entitled to the benefit of the exemption notification ? c) Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Appellate Tribunal is right in law in ignoring the following facts and the materials produced by the petitioner to come to the perverse conclusion that the petitioner is not entitled to the benefit of exemption notification? (i) Spent wash released from distilleries contains a heavy load of organic matters, that are digested by anaerobic bacteria in the digester called 'anaerobic digester', which in turn releases bio-gas. Therefore, the plant erected by the petitioner is only an Effluent-cum-Bio Gas plant eligible for exemption under Notification No. II(1)/CTRE/113(c)/87 dated 10.09.1987 upto the period 31.03.1994 and as per Sl.No.46 of Part-B of III Schedule from 01.04.1994 onwards till date. (ii) Copy of letter issued by Dr.V.V.N.Kishore, Senior Fellow of Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI), New Delhi. (iii) Copy of Certificate issued by one Dr.L.Devarajan, Professor of Soil Science, Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. (iv) Process flow chart of the plant (v) Literature relating to specifications for Bio-Gas Plant by Indian Standards Institution, New Delhi.
(2.) As the facts and law involved in all the above tax cases are one and the same, all the cases are taken up together and decided by a common order.
(3.) The brief facts leading to the present cases are that the petitioner company engaged in manufacturing and marketing white sugar and other allied products including Effluent Treatment-cum- Bio-Gas Plant. The petitioner company filed a return under TNGST Act and thereafter, sought for exemption of income from the sale of Effluent Treatment-cum-Bio-Gas Plant (ETBGP) in terms of exemption provided under Section 17 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act. However, the Assessing authority did not apply the exemption and determined the total and taxable turn over as against the petitioner, as per the returns filed including the income from the sale of Effluent Treatment-cum-Bio-Gas Plant.;