TMI Blog1967 (11) TMI 99X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Company Ltd.-herein- after called "the respondent"-is a public limited company which carries on the business of manufacturing and selling hydrogenated oil and is registered as a dealer under the Madhya Bharat Sales Tax Act, 1950, and also under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956. For the four quarters of 1958-59 the respondent submitted returns of turnover from its inter- State sale transactions. The Madhya Bharat Sales Tax Act, 1950, was repealed with effect from April 1, 1959, by the Madhya Pradesh General Sales Tax Act (2 of 1959), but it is common ground that assessment in this case is governed by the provisions of the Madhya Bharat Sales Tax Act, 1950. After certain infructuous attempts made to tax the turnover of the respondent under Act 2 of 1959, the Additional Assistant Commissioner of Sales Tax, Indore Region, by notice dated September,17, 1962, called upon the respondent to show cause why the transactions included in the taxable turnover of the respondent be not taxed at the full rate. The respondent then presented a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution in the High Court of Madhya Pradesh for an order quashing the proceeding for assessment, contending, inter ali ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e production of evidence that the returns are correct and complete, he shall serve on such person a notice requiring him on a date and place to be therein specified- (i) to appear in person, or by an agent duly authorised in writing; or (ii) to produce or cause to be produced, any evidence on which such person may rely, in support of the returns; or (iii) to produce or cause to be produced such accounts or documents pertaining to the assessment year and to three years preceding as the assessing authority may require. (3) On the day specified in the notice under sub-section (2) or as soon afterwards as may be, the assessing authority after hearing such evidence as such person may produce and such other evidence as the assessing authority may require on specified points, shall, by an order in writing, assess the taxable turnover and determine the tax payable on the basis of such assessment. (4) If a dealer- (a) having furnished returns fails to comply with all the terms of a notice issued under sub-section (2); or (b) has not regularly employed any method of accounting, or, if the method employed is such that, in the opinion of the assessing authority, asses ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to section 8 and that since the assessment under section 8(1)(b) had to be made within three years from the end of the year of assessment and if that "was not done it could not be done at all". There is no doubt that where the dealer has not filed the prescribed return of his turnover, the case is clearly one of "escaped assessment", and the proceeding for assessment must commence in respect of that turnover within the period prescribed by section 10. Where however a return is filed by a dealer under section 7, a proceeding for assessment commences, and a notice under sub-section (2) of section 8 is a step in the proceeding for completing the assessment. The Act contains no provision that the proceed- ing shall be completed within any fixed period; the assessing authority is therefore entitled to complete the proceeding properly commenced without any restriction as to time. If a proceeding for assessment is completed, and it is found that any turnover has escaped assessment, the proceeding for bringing to tax that turnover must be commenced within three years next succeeding the year to which the tax relates. Since in the present case the proceeding for assessment had already com ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... till then. Under section 11A of the C.P. and Berar Sales Tax Act, 1947, the Commissioner is entitled to reassess or assess the turnover within three years from the expiry of the period for which the tax is due and the turnover has either escaped assessment or has been under-assessed. This Court in Ghanshyamdas's case' in dealing with the case of a registered dealer under the C.P. and Berar Sales Tax Act, 1947, decided that the Sales Tax Authority had no jurisdiction to issue a notice of assessment after the expiry of three years in respect of the quarter other than that covered by the return made by the dealer, or in respect of the quarters beyond three years from the date of the issue of the notice where no return had been filed by the dealer. There is nothing in the judgment in Ghanshyamdas's case' which supports the view that if the dealer has made a return of his turnover, the assessing authority is incompetent to proceed to assess the turnover by issuing a notice calling upon the dealer to produce evidence to explain or support the return, after the expiry of the period prescribed under section 11A of the C. P. and Berar Sales Tax Act. The following observation on which coun ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
