9911796707
TMI Blog1967 (11) TMI 99X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 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 alia, that since the assessment was not completed within three years from the last day of the year of assessment as provided by section 10 of the Madhya Bharat Sales Tax Act, 1950, the Sales Tax Officer had no power to continue the proceeding. Following their judgment in Malwa Vanaspati & Chemical Co. Ltd. v. The Regional Assistant Commissioner of Sales Tax, Indore Miscellaneous Petition No. 356 of 1963., the High Court quashed the proceeding for assessment and directed the appellant to forbear from proceeding with the assessment. With special l ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... quire. (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, assessment cannot properly be made on the basis thereof; the assessing authority shall assess the dealer to the best of his judgment and determine the tax payable on the basis of such assessment. (5) ... ... ..." Section 10. "If for any reason the whole or any part of the turnover of business of a dealer has escaped assessment to the tax, or if the licence fee, registration fee or exemption fee has escaped levy or has been assessed at too low a rate in any year, the assessing authority at any time within a period of three years ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sessment 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 commenced when the respondent filed the return, that proceeding could be completed by the assessing authority at any time, and the issue of a notice under sub-section (2) of section 8 does not, in our judgment, attract the bar of section 10 of the Madhya Bharat Sales Tax Act, 1950. But counsel for the respondent contended that this Court in Ghanshyamdas v. Regional Assistant Commissioner of Sales Tax [1964] 4 S.C.R. 436; 14 S.T.C. 976., in interpreting the provisions of the C.P. and Berar Sales Tax Act, 1947, of which the scheme is su ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... espect 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 counsel relied "It is manifest that in the case of a registered dealer the proceedings before the Commissioner starts factually when a return is made or when a notice is issued to him either under section 10(3) or under section 11(2) of the Act." Is the result of a typographical error. Section 10(3) of the C.P. and Berar Sales Tax Act in so far as it relates to a registered dealer authorises the Commissioner to impose a penalty upon the dealer who has failed to furnish a return as required by section 10(1). Section 11(2) of that Act auth ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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