JUDGMENT :

K.S. JHAVERI, J.

By way of this writ petition, the petitioner has challenged the order dated 26.05.2006 under Annexure-9 and the consequential notice dated 03.07.2006 under Annexure-10 issued by the Assistant Commissioner of Sales Tax, Cuttack II Range, Cuttack-opposite party No.2 under Rule 16 of the Central Sales Tax (Orissa) Rules, 1957 and prays for a direction to the opposite parties to refund Rs.15,00,000/-.

2. Learned counsel for the petitioner contended that in view of the White Paper on State-Level Value Added Tax issued by the Government of Orissa at Annexure-12, the State Government assured the industries that payment of Orissa Value Added Tax will be given set off for which he has relied upon Section 21 of the VAT Act which came into force with effect from 01.04.2005 and has remained in force up to 30.06.2005. However, the State Government with effect from 01.07.2005 amended Section 21 (1) of the OVAT Act which reads as under:

“S.21(1) If the input tax credit of a registered dealer other than an exporter selling goods outside the territory of India determined under Section 20 for any tax period exceeds the tax liability for that period, the excess credit shall be