- (1.) The challenge in this writ petition is to section 17 of the Assam Value Added Tax Act, 2003 (for short, "the Act") and the notification dated April 5, 2007.
(2.) Section 17 of the Act reads as follows : 17. Powers of Government to amend Schedules.--The Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, add to or omit from any Schedule any entry or entries or transpose any entry or part of entry from one Schedule to another or vary any entry or entries or the rate or rates or the point or points of levy or otherwise amend or modify any Schedule, prospectively or retrospectively, and thereupon the Schedule shall be deemed to have been amended accordingly : Provided that the Government shall not vary the rate of tax so as to enhance it, any case, exceeding forty paise in a rupee.
(3.) A bare reading of the aforesaid section would show that it enables the Government by a notification in the official gazette to, inter alia, amend any entry (including relating to the rate of tax) in any schedule to the Act. It is also provided that the rate of tax, if it is enhanced, shall not exceed 40 paise in a rupee (or 40 per cent).;