TMI Blog1979 (1) TMI 218X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ax department and that as he retracted therefrom at a later stage, the burden of proof was on the shoulders of the sales tax department to establish that there was an escapement as such. He, therefore, gave the benefit to the assessee and excluded the above amounts from the assessable turnover. The Board of revenue suo motu revised the proceedings and set aside the orders of the Appellate Assistant Commissioner. The relevant facts which would appear from the records are that during the pendency of the income-tax proceedings, the assessee gave a sworn statement to the effect that the above two sums of Rs. 73,000 and Rs. 72,000 represented unbilled cash sales and that, thereafter, for reasons known to the assessee, he retracted from it and ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... that as the income-tax department is said to have been satisfied about the bona fides of the appellant when he retracted from his sworn statement which was to the effect that the aforesaid sums represented unbilled cash sales, then such acceptance of bona fides should equally merit acceptance here before us and ought to have been accepted by the Board of Revenue also. There is a fallacy in this argument. The courses of taxation under the Income-tax Act and the Sales Tax Act are entirely different. Whilst in the former, the income of a dealer is assessed to tax and is expected to be quantified by the Income-tax Officer under the Income-tax Act in accordance with the provisions of that Act, the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act ordains the ass ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... m the force of the taxing provisions because he could make suitable statements at opportune moments to help his cause and get out of the net of taxation. Once a voluntary overt act results in a sworn statement, it should be given effect to and an opportunity ought not to be given to the assessee to retract therefrom unless there is some suspicion, proved and circumstantial, available at the time when such a statement was made. No such significant circumstance is present in the instant case. Therefore, we are of the view that for the simple reason that it suited the assessee to retract from his statement before the income-tax authorities, that situation should not prevail and cause the assessing authorities under the Tamil Nadu General Sales ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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