TMI Blog1990 (11) TMI 362X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to grant the exemption holding that the said local purchasers were only namelenders with bogus registration and that their registrations were cancelled with retrospective effect in 1989. The exemption claimed towards sale of pepper in the sum of Rs. 10,19,460.55 and sale of betel-nuts amounting to Rs. 4,05,712.23 were disallowed. The plea of the assessee, that the Revenue has no authority to cancel the registration certificate of the purchasing dealers with retrospective effect, that the cancellation of the certificates of registration cannot in any way deprive the assessee from getting the exemption pleaded, that the assessee acted bona fide on the basis of declarations and other documents issued by the purchasing dealers at the time when the certificates of registration issued were valid and had not been cancelled and so the exemption cannot be denied on the ground of the cancellation of the registration of the purchasing dealers with retrospective effect, were negatived. In the opinion of the assessing authority when the certificates of registration issued to the purchasing dealers were found to be bogus or fictitious and the certificates were cancelled, that will ipso facto den ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... not ipso facto deprive the assessee of the exemption provided by the Act. Form No. 25 declarations filed should be true declarations and if it turns out subsequently that the said declarations are untrue, the assessee is not entitled to exemption. The taxing authority is not estopped from challenging the validity of the certificate of registration. Reliance was placed on the Bench decision of the Orissa High Court in Nowranglal Agarwala v. State of Orissa [1965] 16 STC 271. 3.. We shall first advert to the relevant statutory provisions, regarding registration, as they stood after Act 19 of 1980. They are: "14. Procedure for registration.-(1) An application for registration shall be made to such authority, in such manner and within such period as may be prescribed and shall be accompanied by a fee of one hundred rupees. (2) If the prescribed authority after making such enquiries as it may consider necessary is satisfied(a) that the application is in order; (b) that the particulars furnished therein are correct; and (c) that the security, if any, required to be furnished under subsection (2A) has been furnished, it shall register the applicant and issue to him a certificate ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ted to the assessing authority on or before the twenty-fifth of the month succeeding that to which the sales relate along with a statement of such declarations showing the name and address of the dealers to whom the goods were sold with the particulars of sale bill, quantity, and value, and the total turnover covered by such declarations. THE KERALA GENERAL SALES TAX RULES, 1963 FORM NO. 25 Form of declaration to be furnished by a purchasing dealer when goods taxable at the point of last purchase in the State are purchased by him. [See rule 32(14)] 1.. I/We........................(here enter the name and full postal address of the purchaser) dealer/s in goods taxable at the point of last purchase in the State, have purchased goods of the description given below from Sri/ Messrs...........(here enter the name and full postal address of the seller/s). 2.. I/We have included the value of the goods so purchased in our total turnover of the year and my/our turnover in respect of such goods is not less than Rs. 10,000/turnover in respect of tapioca is not less than Rs. 35,000/ total turnover is not less than Rs. 25,000 (strike out which is not applicable). 3.. My/Our registra ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Kerala [1990] 78 STC 328 (Ker). A Bench of this Court in Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax v. Zaid and Company [1987] 67 STC 77 explained the scope and effect of rule 32(14) of the Kerala General Sales Tax Rules and form No. 25 declarations, in the following words, at page 78: "..............The requirement of such declaration as per sub-rule (14) of rule 32 is to ensure that the tax due to the Government at the last purchase point is collected from the purchaser at that point and the method of proof of the last purchase point provided for in the sub-rule itself is by the production of the declaration in form 25. Once such a declaration is produced, the incidence of taxation at the last purchase point is on the purchaser who issues the declaration." 5.. It should be remembered that a certificate is granted by the prescribed authority only after making such enquiries as he may consider necessary and only if he is satisfied that the application is in order and that the particulars furnished therein are correct, etc. It is not as if the certificate is granted mechanically. An enquiry is contemplated, on the basis of which the concerned officer should be satisfied that the person wh ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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