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2013 (12) TMI 1462 - KARNATAKA HIGH COURTMaintainability of appeal - Held that:- Authority shall not admit or allow the application where the question raised in the application is already pending before any officer or authority of the department or any other authority or appellate Tribunal or in Court and it relates to a transaction or issue, which is designed apparently for the avoidance of tax. In other words, the application before the Advance Rulings Authority has to be made before the question raised for consideration before any officer or authority of the department. If such a question is already decided by the authority, acting on the decision, the assessee can manage his affairs better. The authority who are subordinate to the said Advance Rulings Authority are bound by the opinion of the Advance Rulings Authority. At the same time, once the said question arises for consideration before any officer or authority, the said officer or authority is competent to decide the said issue of the assessee. If he is aggrieved, he is provided with a statutory remedy of preferring an appeal before the appellate authority as well as to the Tribunal. It is only after inspection of the premises, the authorities issued notices to the assessee calling upon him to produce the documents, a recommendation is made for initiation of reassessment proceedings, and a demand for ₹ 2 crores was made to the assessee which is already paid after protest, the assessee filed the application before the Advance Rulings Authority. If the authorities have accepted the returns as it is and if they had no grievance whatsoever, they would not have called upon the assessee to produce the books of account and would not have collected a sum of ₹ 2 crores as tax even under protest. - So prima facie, the question of exemption is pending before the officer concerned for adjudication and therefore, once such a question is pending before any authority or officer for adjudication, the aforesaid provision makes it clear that an application for advance rulings is not maintainable - Decided against assessee.
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