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2023 (1) TMI 797 - ORISSA HIGH COURTTime bound supply scheme - branch transfers - interstate sales - Section 3(a) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 - Whether in the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal has ignored the fact of absence of any conceivable links with the customers and the despatch of the goods to the Branch? - HELD THAT:- There can be no manner of doubt that an AO is required to examine each transaction forming the subject matter of the assessment proceedings to determine whether it amounts to a branch transfer as contended by the Assessee or an interstate sale as contended by the Department. Therefore, the decision in any particular year, even involving the same Assessee and the same scheme, need not necessarily form a precedent for a subsequent year since the transaction in each subsequent year will have to in any event be examined on a case by case basis. Therefore, there need not be any apprehension entertained by the Department that if the Court for the present year i.e. 1988-89 decides that the transactions in question do not amount to interstate sales then in all subsequent years ipso facto, without anything more, all the transactions for those years will also be termed only as branch transfers and not interstate sales. While the Assessee has discharged its initial burden of showing that the transaction was only a branch transfer, the Department has been unable to discharge its burden of showing that in fact the transaction was not merely a branch transfer but was a movement of goods by way of interstate sale occasioned by a concluded contract - the Court is not persuaded that the matter pertaining to 1988-89 should again be sent to the Tribunal for verification of each transaction to determine whether it is an interstate sale as contended by the Department. The Court notes that nearly 35 years have already elapsed since the year 1988-89 and these proceedings cannot interminably carry on. The impugned order of the Tribunal and the corresponding orders of the First Appellate Authority and the AO are hereby set aside - issue answered in favour of the Assessee and against the Department.
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