P.K. Balasubramanyan, C.J.

1. Section 25-A of the Bihar Finance Act, 1981 has been the subject matter of controversy. The section provides for advance recovery of tax payable under that Act. Notwithstanding anything contained in Section 26 of that Act, Section 25-A provides that every person responsible for making any payment of sale price or any amount purporting to be the full or part payment of sale price or any payment in discharge of any liability on account of valuable consideration payable in respect of transfer of property in goods, whether as goods or in some other form, involved in the execution of a works contract has to deduct an amount, at a rate specified by the State Government, in a notification published in the official Gazette purporting to be a part or full amount of tax payable on the sale of such goods from every bill or invoice raised by a works contractor engaged by him. The petitioner in this writ petition, M/s. Larsen & Tubro challenged the said provision, as it then stood, in the High Court of Patna in CWJC No. 878 of 1997. The argument on behalf of the petitioner was that the State was incompetent to impose any tax on a works contract and the State