TMI Blog1961 (1) TMI 61X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s Tax was not satisfied about the correctness of the return, and, therefore, issued notice upon the assessee under section 13(2) of the statute. The dealer appeared in response to the notice, but he did not produce any stock book or any ledger account showing the total quantity and price of the various articles purchased and sold during the year. The Assistant Superintendent of Sales Tax, therefore, made an assessment to the best of his judgment under section 13(3) of the Bihar Sales Tax Act. He also asked the assessee to show cause why a penalty should not be imposed for nonpayment of the sales tax for the previous three quarters. After hearing the assessee, the Assistant Superintendent of Sales Tax levied a penalty of Rs. 1,000 upon the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... cording to his books of account and his return. The penalty has naturally to be set aside. Besides no penalty can be imposed merely because the payment of tax has been delayed." As directed by the High Court the Board of Revenue has stated a case on the following questions of law: "(1) Whether in the circumstances of this case the assessing officer was justified in making the assessment to the best of his judgment? (2) Whether in the facts and circumstances of this case the penalty imposed for non-payment of the admitted tax was legally valid?" With regard to the first question the argument of the learned Government Pleader is that the Assistant Superintendent of Sales Tax was justified in making the assessment under section 13(3) o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... before the learned Deputy Commissioner should have been produced earlier and may have even been manipulated, in the absence of corroborative evidence to convert the suspicion into reasonable certainty, it would be unduly hard to reject the books of the petitioner as unreliable." In our opinion the Board of Revenue has committed an error of law in holding that though the failure to maintain a stock book was a suspicious circumstance and that the kata bahi might have been manipulated, still the Assistant Superintendent of Sales Tax and the Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax were not justified in rejecting the books of account and making an assessment to the best of their judgment. If the Sales Tax Authorities have reason to suspect that the a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ihar Sales Tax Act provides as follows: "14. (3a) Where any registered dealer fails without any reasonable cause to make payment of the tax or extra amount of the tax due from him according to the return or revised return furnished under sub-section (1) or (2) of section 12, the Commissioner may direct that the dealer shall, by way of penalty, pay a sum not exceeding five rupees for every day after the date prescribed under the said section, during which the dealer has failed to make payment." It is, therefore, manifest in the present case that the assessee is liable to be saddled with penalty under section 14(3a) of the Bihar Sales Tax Act because he has failed to make the payment of the admitted tax due from him at the time of the sub ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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