GSR88- — An exemption granted under section 42 of the Income-tax Act, 1961

What this is

GSR88- was published on 9 February 2001. Its subject is An exemption granted under section 42 of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

This grants an exemption or a relief under a provision that allows one. Read the conditions attached: an exemption notification is construed strictly, and a condition missed is the exemption lost.

What it does

The notification, made under section 44 of the Finance Act, 1989, exempts passengers travelling by air on free tickets issued by Air India, Indian Airlines or any other airline, from any part of the country to the earthquake affected area of the State of Gujarat or from that area to any other part of the country, from payment of the inland air travel tax leviable under sub-section (1) of section 42 of that Act. The exemption is limited in time: the notification is to remain in force till midnight of 28 February 2001.

Why it was issued

The Central Government was satisfied that it was necessary and expedient to do so having regard to the special circumstances due to the earthquake.

Who it reaches

passengers flying on free tickets to or from the earthquake affected area of Gujarat
Air India, Indian Airlines and other airlines collecting inland air travel tax
relief workers and others carried free to the affected area

The provisions it speaks to

Left, the provision of the Income-tax Act, 1961 as the instrument itself names it. Right, the section of the Income-tax Act, 2025 that the department’s own concordance maps it to — which is where the same ground is now covered.

Under the 1961 Act	Now
s.42	s.54, s.66

The instrument, as the Board published it

The words below are the department’s own, reproduced from its published text. Where the department’s copy carried a publisher’s notes after the instrument, those are not reproduced.

In exercise of the powers conferred by section 44 of the Finance Act, 1989 (13 of 1989), the Central Government, being satisfied that it is necessary and expedient so to do having regard to the special circumstances due to earthquake, hereby exempts the passengers travelling by air on free tickets issued by Air India or Indian Airlines or any other Airlines from any part of the country to the earthquake affected area of the State of Gujarat or from earthquake affected area of that State to any other part of the country, from payment of inland air travel tax leviable under sub-section (1) of section 42 of the said Act.

2. This notification shall remain in force till midnight of 28th February, 2001.

[F. No. 306/1/2001-FTT]

From when

in force till midnight of 28 February 2001.

What to watch

The exemption ceases at midnight of 28 February 2001; a journey after that hour is not covered.
It is confined to free tickets; a paid or concessional ticket is outside it.
The journey must be to or from the earthquake affected area of Gujarat, so a flight between two unaffected points is not covered.
The power exercised is section 44 of the Finance Act, 1989 and the levy relieved is that under sub-section (1) of section 42 of that Act, not a levy under the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Where you meet it

A reader meets this in the airline's collection and remittance of inland air travel tax for the relief flights of that period.

← Notification No. 364- · Notification No. 35/2001 [F.No.501/7/73-FTD] / GSR 74(E) →

What a notification is. A notification is made under a power the Act itself gives, and within that power it is law — unlike a circular, which only binds the department. Its reach is the reach of the enabling provision and no wider, and the date it carries decides from when it works.

Source: the Income Tax Department’s own published text — its page for this instrument.