Where two reasonable interpretations of an exemption were possible, the one against the TAX payer and in favour of the revenue would be adopted.

Citation Name : 2019 PTD 1299 SUPREME-COURT
Side Appellant : PAKISTAN MATCH INDUSTRIES (PVT.) LTD.
Side Opponent : ASSISTANT COLLECTOR, SALES TAX AND CENTRAL EXCISE MARDAN
Fiscal statute---Exemption from TAX ---Where two reasonable interpretations of an exemption were possible, the one against the TAX payer and in favour of the revenue would be adopted.

Citation Name : 2019 PTD 1299 SUPREME-COURT
Side Appellant : PAKISTAN MATCH INDUSTRIES (PVT.) LTD.
Side Opponent : ASSISTANT COLLECTOR, SALES TAX AND CENTRAL EXCISE MARDAN
S. 13(1)---S.R.O. 77(I)/95 dated 19-01-1995 ("SRO 77"), as amended by S.R.O. 87(I)/96 dated 30-01-1996---Exemption from sales TAX ---'Proviso', interpretation of---First proviso to 'SRO 77' provided that exemption (from sales TAX ) shall be available to only such industrial units which had opened letters of credit for the import of plant and machinery upto the 31st January, 1996---Question was whether the exemption was limited only to those industrial units that were set up with imported plant and machinery, or was it also available to those set up with plant and machinery that was locally manufactured---Held, that a reading of SRO 77 made it clear that the main paragraph thereof, when read on its own and without taking the first proviso into account, would apply to all industrial units otherwise within the scope thereof, i.e., without any reference to whether the plant and machinery were locally manufactured or imported---First proviso to SRO 77 was only a "true" proviso and not a substantive clause operating in its own right; it carved out an exception, and nothing more---First proviso was not intended to operate, as affecting the whole of the field covered by the main paragraph, and altering and limiting it (to only those industrial units that were set up with imported plant and machinery)---Appeal was disposed of accordingly.

Citation Name : 2019 PTD 1299 SUPREME-COURT
Side Appellant : PAKISTAN MATCH INDUSTRIES (PVT.) LTD.
Side Opponent : ASSISTANT COLLECTOR, SALES TAX AND CENTRAL EXCISE MARDAN
S. 47---Reference to High Court---Scope---'Questions of law'---In case of a TAX reference before the High Court, all factual aspects of the case were closed by, and at the level of, the Appellate Tribunal; and it was only questions of law that could travel to the High Court---Factual points could not be allowed to be opened or (re-)agitated, unless there had been a material misreading or non-reading of the evidence, which was itself a question of law that could be taken to the High Court.