Home Case Index All Cases VAT and Sales Tax VAT and Sales Tax + HC VAT and Sales Tax - 2015 (5) TMI HC This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2015 (5) TMI 838 - HC - VAT and Sales TaxValidity of assessment notice issued - Bar of limitation - Section 34 - Held that:- Preconditions for invoking the extended period are that the Commissioner should record reasons to believe that the tax has not been paid and that the reason for non payment of tax should be concealment, omission or failure to disclose full material particulars on the part of the assessee. In the present case no such ‘reason to believe’ has been recorded - it would be a virtually impossible task for the appellate authority to first find and decipher the unknown and unrecorded ‘reasons to believe’ and thereupon decide whether the requisite conditions for invoking the proviso under section 34(1) of the said Act were actually satisfied or not. The issue or question raised would be answered on guess work or mere probabilities as to what the ‘reason to believe’ was. It is for these reasons that the Division Bench held that the “reasons to believe” must be disclosed clearly in the record prior to the issuance of the default assessment notice/order or in the said notice/order itself. - reasons for extending the time for completing the re-assessment proceedings were not the reasons indicated in the proviso to section 34(1) but other purported reasons of pendency of cases, election duty etc. etc. Those purported reasons did not permit the respondent to invoke the extended period of limitation given in the proviso to section 34(1) of the said Act. - Default assessment notice dated 09.07.2014 is time barred and is quashed. - Decided in favour of assessee.
|