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2002 (4) TMI 920

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..... ulia Range and Deputy Commissioner, Commercial Tax, Asansol Circle respectively-affirming the order of seizure and penalty of respondent No. 1 and praying for setting the same aside. 1.. The case of the petitioner is that the petitioner is the proprietor of M/s. Kusum Trading Company and is reseller of spices and purchaser of goods from State of West Bengal and also from outside the State of West Bengal for the purpose of sale in West Bengal. The petitioner is a registered dealer under both the Acts, i.e., West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994 and Central Sales Tax Act, 1956. To attend to the orders of different customers, petitioner consigned some goods in a vehicle bearing registration No. WB 55/ 2336 from Raniganj (West Bengal) for the purpos .....

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..... y 12, 2001 imposing penalty of Rs. 40,320 representing 30 per cent of Rs. 1,34,401.61 which is the value allegedly been suppressed and that figure of Rs. 1,34,401.61 paise has been arrived at by deducting the value worked out or estimated by respondent No. 1 with reference to the market value, from the value declared by the petitioner in the documents. Respondent No. 1 issued notice in form 45 for realisation of that amount. Against this the petitioner went in revision before respondent No. 2, Assistant Commissioner, Purulia Range, but respondent No. 2 upheld by order dated February 24, 2001, the order dated February 12, 2001 agreeing with respondent No. 1 that underinvoicing or under-valuation can also be taken into account in a case cover .....

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..... the Rules 1995. Learned advocate also points out that the respondent No. 1 does not, at one point of time, place reliance on cash memo or credit memo regarding ground-nut or mustard seed but at the next moment relies on the same and accepts those for calculating penalty amount. Learned lawyer also urges that there is nothing in the Act or Rule that the challan numbers and dates in the challans should be typewritten or printed. So the suspicion of respondent No. 1 that the challans are manipulated as written in hand is unfounded one and cannot have any legal basis and the same cannot be a ground for discrediting the challans in the way he did. 5.. We know that every person as per section 68 of the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994 while cons .....

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..... though other particulars covering weight, quantity, etc., find place in that form of declaration as per rule 214B(1). It has been mentioned that in a case being RN-308/2000 (Kamal Kothari v. Commercial Tax Officer, Central Section) this Tribunal held that "verification" includes checking the valuation of the consignment also. But that judgment as referred to by learned State Representative was in respect of transporting consignment of goods into West Bengal from any place outside West Bengal. Hence the principle enunciated in that ruling can have no application in the facts of this case. Admittedly the transportation by the petitioner was in respect of different items of goods mainly spices-from Raniganj to different consignees of Purulia. .....

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..... 1 and as upheld by respondent Nos. 2 and 3. 6.. In view of our finding as above, namely, the seizure being vitiated, the penalty proceeding loses all force. Even if the seizure has been valid, penalty imposed cannot be supported in view of the fact that the order of respondent No. 1 does not disclose any basis on which he made his valuation. It does not give any basis on which market price was found. We do not know what were the amount of freight, profit, etc. No basis or supporting material for determination of value or the quality of the goods has been indicated by respondent No. 1. So even otherwise also, it is not a fit case where penalty should have at all been imposed. 7.. Accordingly we hold that the application should be and is a .....

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