Home Case Index All Cases VAT and Sales Tax VAT and Sales Tax + HC VAT and Sales Tax - 2016 (8) TMI HC This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2016 (8) TMI 1077 - HC - VAT and Sales TaxClassification - Product prawn feed - Whether Product prawn feed would be covered under Entry 14 of the First Schedule pertaining to cattle feed - Held that:- In the present case all that the legislature has done is to provide for a specific exemption for all aquatic products with effect from 31.03.2012. This exemption entry in no manner, amended any provisions of the First Schedule to the VAT Act, which continued to carry Entry 14 pertaining to the cattle feed, and thus whether before or after 31.03.2012, all cattle feed continued to fall within the list of goods, the sale or purchase of which are exempt from tax. The exemption entry pertaining to aquatic feed did not change this position. This change therefore, had no material effect on the order of determination passed by the Deputy Commissioner. We may recall, under such order, the Deputy Commissioner had held that the prawn feed would fall within the meaning of cattle feed for the purpose of entry 11 to the Schedule-I to the Sales Tax Act. The Assessing Officer, thus, proceeded entirely on the wrong premises and assumed jurisdiction not vested in it. It was bound by the order of determination passed by the Deputy Commissioner unless, by virtue of exemption notification, entire basis of such determination was rendered invalid. The legislature providing for exemption of such product from payment of tax does not necessarily and by itself imply that the product was otherwise exigible to tax. Question of relegating the petitioner to the alternative remedy therefore would not arise, when we find that the Assessing Officer has gone against an order of determination which was binding on him and when we find that his reasons for discarding such order of determination are wholly invalid. In other words, in our opinion, there was no material change in the relevant taxing entries insofar as the product in question is concerned. The Assessing Officer therefore, could not have ignored the order of determination. His order therefore was wholly without jurisdiction.
|