Commissioner (Industries) dated 21.06.2016 filed as Annexure-6 to the writ petition, a cold storage has been declared to be an industrial unit. Thus, the petitioner's unit is an industrial unit, which is alleged to be a new unit. The notification dated 21.01.2010 grants exemption from electricity duty to all new industrial units and also those units which have been declared as pioneer units. The notification dated 05.02.2018 also grants exemption of electricity duty to all new industrial units and all units declared as pioneer units for a period of 10 and 15 years respectively. There is nothing in these two notifications to indicate that industrial unit would mean only those units where manufacture or production activity is being carried out. Thus, petitioner's unit being an industrial unit and not disputed to be a new unit, prima facie appears to be entitled for exemption from electricity duty. However, no exemption order has been passed by the competent authority and instead, a stand has been taken in paragraph-5 of the counter affidavit that no application for exemption in electricity duty has been received from the petitioner's unit.
