2023 (6) TMI 755 - CALCUTTA HIGH COURT

Disbursal of subsidies/incentives under a Scheme floated by the State of West Bengal, being The West Bengal State Support for Industries Scheme, 2008 - promotion of large and medium scale industries in the background regions of the State - no liability to pay VAT - HELD THAT:- It transpires from the records that the Scheme in question was floated for the purposes of extending certain additional financial support for promotion of large and medium scale industries in the background regions of the State, as mentioned in the very first paragraph of the Notification dated February 28, 2011, which contains the Scheme.

In the said Gazette Notification, clause 16 is one of the modes of payment but not an eligibility criterion. Eligibility criteria for incentive under the Scheme are stipulated in clause 6 of the Scheme. There is nothing in the said clause to indicate that the payment of VAT to the State is a necessary pre-requisite for getting benefit of the Scheme.

An empirical statement generated from the data base of the Commercial Tax Department on the basis of the quarterly returns filed for each of the four quarters of the consecutive financial years reflects the tax payment behaviour of the dealer, in the light of which the Additional Commissioner opined that the present case be treated not as an EOU dealer but as a situation where the applicant dealer is not in a position to fully/partly adjust VAT payable with the sanctioned amount of capital and interest subsidies as per the T&C [Terms and Conditions] of the WBISS 2008 Scheme.

There is no scope of the petitioners being liable to pay any further VAT dues under the Scheme. Hence, as the petitioners are otherwise eligible to get the benefit of the Scheme and have already being admitted to be so twice, once for the subsidy under the Scheme and once for the interest subsidy by the respondent Authorities themselves, there is no impediment on the part of the respondent Authorities at all in disbursing the entire subsidy to the petitioners, including the interest subsidies, as already sanctioned.

Petition allowed on contest, thereby directing the respondent Authorities to immediately disburse the entire amount of the subsidy which the petitioners are entitled to get under the West Bengal State Support for Industries Scheme, 2008 [as amended up to December 31, 2010] to the petitioners within an outer limit of three months from date.