Prompt tax payment rebate survives minor return delay when the statute is read liberally and the return is accepted.

Rebate under section 15 of the Bihar Sales Tax Act, 1959 was available where tax was paid on time and the quarterly returns were filed only slightly late. The Court read the rebate provision liberally, holding that it was meant to encourage prompt payment rather than to defeat relief for a trivial procedural delay. Because the Act did not prescribe any special procedure or formal order for extension of time under section 14(3), the short delay in filing could be treated as impliedly condoned when the returns were accepted and acted upon. The assessee was therefore entitled to the rebate.

---

---

Issues: Whether rebate under section 15 of the Bihar Sales Tax Act, 1959 was available when the tax had been paid in time but the quarterly returns were filed slightly beyond the prescribed period without any express application for extension of time.

Analysis: Section 15 conferred a rebate for prompt payment of tax admitted to be due in a return furnished in the prescribed manner and within the prescribed or extended period. The assessee had paid the tax before the due dates and the assessments were made on the basis of the returns, though the returns were filed late by a short interval. The Act did not prescribe any special procedure for obtaining extension of time under section 14(3), nor did it require a formal order recording extension. In the circumstances, and having regard to the object of section 15 to encourage prompt payment rather than to penalise minor delay in filing, the delay could be treated as condoned by implication and the procedural condition could receive a liberal construction.

Conclusion: The assessee was entitled to the rebate under section 15, and the question was answered in favour of the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: A rebate provision intended to encourage prompt payment of tax should be construed so that a trivial or impliedly condoned delay in filing the return does not defeat the benefit where the tax has been paid in time and the return has been accepted and acted upon.

---