M/S. V.V.S. SUGARS ETC. ETC. versus GOVT. OF ANDHRA PRADESH AND ORS.

Citation: [1999] 2 S.C.R. 925 · Decided: 28-04-1999 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: S.P. BHARUCHA · Disposal: Appeal(s) allowed
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Judgment (excerpt)

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MIS. V.V.S. SUGARS ETC. ETC. 
.. 
A 
v. 
GOVT. OF ANDHRA PRADESH AND ORS. 
APRIL 28, 1999 
[S.P, BHARUCHA, B.N. KIRPAL, S. RAJENDRA BABU, 
B 
S.S. MOHAMME°: QUADRI. AND M.B. SHAH, JJ.] 
A.P. Sugarcane (Regulation of Supply and Purchase) Act, 1961/A.P. 
Sugarcane (Regulation of Supply and Purchase) Rules, 1961 : Section 21 (JD) 
(a), (4) & (5)/Rule 45(4)-Provisionfor levy of Purchase tax on sugarcane- C 
Provision for payment of interest on delayed payment of tax-Section 21 
amended w.e.f 29-12-1975, exempting tax on purchase of sugarca~e
Challenged in a writ petition-High Court took the view that amendment to 
Section 21 was restricted to the crushing season 1975-76-Held no interest 
could be levied under Rule 45 of the said Rules-On appeal, Held : Taxing D 
statute must be interpreted as it reads without additions and subtractions-
Section 21(3D) came into force on the date of the commencement of the 
Amending Act-Its provisions are open ended and are intended to apply 
upon commencement of the Amending Act with no limitation in time-No 
substantive provision in the Act for levy of interest on arrears of lax applying 
to purchase of sugarcane made subsequent to the Amending Act. 
E 
The issue involved in this appeal was whether, subsequent to the 
insertion of Section 21(3D) by the Amending Act 25of1976 in the Andhra 
Pradesh Sugarcane (Regulation of Supply & Purchase) Act, 1971, any 
interest could be levied on arrears of tax levied under Rule 45(4) of the 
Andhra Pradesh (Regulation of Supply & Purchases) Rules, 1961~ The High F 
Court was of the view that the amendment was applicable to the 1975-76 
crushing season only and held that interest was leviable. Hence the present 
appeal. 
The appellants contended that by reason of clause (a) of sub-section 3D G 
of Section 21 of the Act, as ame11ded, sub-sections (4) & (5) thereof were not 
to apply in respect of purchases sugarcane made on or after the date of 
commencement of the Amending Act, which was 29-12-1975. It was also 
contended that sub-section (5) of section 21 was the provision which required 
payment of interest on arrears of tax and having regard to the inapplicability 
of that provision for the relevant period, no interest could be levied. 
H 
925 
926 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
[1999] 2 S.C.R. 
A 
Allowing the appeal, this Court 
HELD : The A.P. Sugarcane (Regulation of Supply and Purchase) Act, 
1961 is a taxing statute and a taxing statute must be interpreted as it reads, 
with no additions and no subtractions, on the ground of legislative intendment 
or otherwise. On the plain wording of clause (a) of sub-section (3D) of 
B Section 21 of the Act as amended, it is difficult to agree with the High Court. 
The provisions thereof say that sub-section(S) shall not apply in relation to 
tax levied under sub-section (1) of Section 21 on purchase of sugarcane. The 
provisions came into force on the date of the commencement of the Amending 
Act. The provisions are open ended and are intended to apply upon the 
C commencement of the Amending Act with no limitation in time. There being 
no substantive provision in the Act for the levy of interest on arrears of tax 
that applied to purchases of sugarcane made subsequent to the date of 
commencement of the Amending Act, no interest thereon could be so levied 
on the basis of the application of Rule 45 of the A.P. Sugarcane (Regulation 
of Supply and Purchase) Rules, 1961 or otherwise. [928-C-D-F] 
D 
India Carbon Ltd. & Ors. v. State of Assam, (1997] 6 SCC 479, relied 
on. 
J.K. Synthetics v. CTO, [1994] 4 SCC 276, referred to. 
E 
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Civil Appeal No. 903 of 1984 
Etc. Etc. 
From the Judgment and Order dated 23.9.82 of the Andhra Pradesh High 
Court in W.P. No. 3063of198( 
F 
Mrs. K. Amreshwari, Anil B. Divan, Ms. Sudha Gupta, G. Venkatesh, 
G 
H 
B.K. Rao, T.V. Ratnam, Syed Naqvi, Mrs. Urmila Sirur, G. Narasimhulu, K. Ram 
Kumar, Ms. Asha G. Nair, Shantinarayan, Sridhar, V. Krishnamurthy, G. Prabhakar 
and Vinoo Bhagat for the appearing parties. 
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by 
BHARUCHA, J. We are concerned with the interpretation of Section 21 
of the Andhra Pradesh Sugarcane (Regulation of Supply and Purchase) Act, 
1961, as amended by Act 25 of 1976. Principally, the provisions to be dealt 
with are sub-sections 3D, 4 and 5 of Section 21 which read thus: 
"(3-D) In relation to the tax levied under sub-section (I) and in 
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V.V.S. SUGARS v.
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