VISHNUDEO NARAYAN,J. - (1.) IN this writ petition the petitioner has prayed for issuance of appropriate writ in the nature of certiorari for quashing the orders dated June 30, 2000 (annexure 16) and July 1, 2000 (annexure 17) passed by respondent No. 3, the Joint Commissioner of Commercial Taxes (Admn), Jamshedpur Division, Jamshedpur (hereinafter called as "jcct") pursuant to the direction dated January 6, 2000 passed by this Court in C. W. J. C. No. 3248 of 1999 (R) whereby and whereunder the prayer of the petitioner for refund of the sales tax of the year 1996-97 has been disallowed and for the year 1997-98 the petitioner was allowed to avail of the tax-free purchase of raw materials in the form of hot rolled coil for the production of 8588 MT of CRM product over and above the 2/3rd incremental capacity of 60,000 MT fixed under S. O. No. 478 on proportional basis which works out to 9889 MT only and also a direction was made therein that the refund of the tax paid on purchase of raw materials during the period of exemption has to be routed through the seller-company, i. e. , TISCO for the refund of the amount of the tax to the dealer-company.
(2.) THE case of the petitioner is that the petitioner is a company incorporated under the Indian Companies Act having its factory at Golmuri, Jamshedpur and initially it was manufacturing Electrolytic Tin Plate (ETP) having its installed capacity of 90,000 MT and its sole raw material was Tin Mill Black Plate (TMBP) which was totally imported by it from various countries. In pursuance of the Industrial Policy of 1995 which provides for grant of exemption from payment of sales tax on purchase of raw materials and on the sales of finished product in case of new industry in the State of Bihar or an existing unit comes for expansion/diversification/modernisation, the petitioner set up a plant in the said premises for manufacturing TMBP and other CR products on investment of Rs. 300 crores under a separate licence by Ministry of Industries, Government of Bihar. The State Government in terms of the industrial policy had made a statutory notification being S. O. No. 478 dated 22nd December, 1995 in exercise of its power under section 7 (3) (b) of the Bihar Finance Act, 1981 which provides for the benefit of exemption from payment of sales tax on purchase of raw materials to the industry which has started production on or after September 1, 1995 up to August 31, 2000. The petitioner in terms of the said notification is entitled to full exemption from sales tax in respect of the raw materials, i. e. , HR coils which the petitioner purchased for the manufacture of TMBP coils used for manufacture of ETP. The said TMBP coils were earlier imported from abroad but the same is now manufactured in the petitioner's factory which is a new product, not manufactured earlier by the petitioner, and as such the raw materials, i. e. , HR coils, which were purchased for the manufacture of the said new product, i. e. , TMBP coils, are entitled to full exemption from sales tax on purchase of such raw materials.
(3.) THE petitioner by way of diversification of his factory set up a Cold Rolling Mill (CRM) having a total production capacity of 1,20,000 MT in which besides the TMBP it also manufactured Full Hard Cold Rolled (FHCR), Cold Rolled Galvanised Corrugated sheet (CRGC), Cold Rolled Galvanised Plain sheet (CRGP) and other cold rolled products and the petitioner produced about 90,000 MT of TMBP which is used for manufacturing of ETP and for balance capacity of 30,000 MT, the petitioner manufactured other cold rolled products like FHCR, CRGC, CRGP and other CR products and the raw materials required for manufacturing of TMBP and other cold rolled products are HR coils which were purchased by the petitioner from TISCO and to some extent from SAIL and the petitioner has claimed exemption for payment of sales tax on the purchase of raw materials, i. e. , HR coils and the production of the petitioner's factory commenced from April 5, 1996 and made an application before the competent authority on May 31, 1996 for grant of exemption from payment of sales tax on purchase of the raw materials and the date of the aforesaid commercial production of TMBP in the factory of the petitioner is with effect from April 5, 1996 stands certified by the Director of Technical Development, Government of Bihar. The Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Jamshedpur Circle vide order dated June 23, 1998 granted exemption to the petitioner in terms of S. O. No. 478 dated December 22, 1995 from payment of sales tax on purchase of raw materials from April 5, 1996 to April 4, 2004 only on incremental production in excess of 2/3rd of installed capacity of old plant ETP which compelled the petitioner to move the matter before JCCT (Admn.), who by order dated September 22, 1998/september 23, 1998 allowed the claim of the petitioner to exemption from payment of sales tax on purchase of raw materials for the period of eight years on the entire raw materials purchased for the manufacture of entirely new product, namely, TMBP. Since the exemption certificate was issued on June 23, 1998 the petitioner had paid sales tax on the purchase of the raw materials as at the relevant time the completion certificate which covered the period was not issued by the department in time and the petitioner had paid sales tax thereon to the extent of Rs. 823. 89 lakhs and Rs. 23. 94 lakhs for the period from April 5, 1996 to March 31, 1998 to the seller, i. e. , TISCO and SAIL respectively.;