Refund of sales tax cannot reopen a final assessment unless the assessment is first set aside or modified.

Refund of sales tax paid under an assessment cannot be used to reopen a concluded assessment on the ground that the assessing officer adopted an erroneous view of law. The refund power extends to tax paid in excess of the amount due under the Act, including where appellate or revisional proceedings have lawfully reduced the liability, but it does not confer a power of review over the assessment itself. A refund authority cannot, in substance, sit in appeal over a final assessment. The assessment must first be set aside or modified in proper proceedings before refund can be entertained.

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Issues: Whether an application for refund of sales tax paid under an order of assessment can be entertained by the Sales Tax Officer on the plea that the assessment was made on an erroneous view of the law, without the assessment first being set aside in appeal or revision.

Analysis: The refund provision empowers the Collector to refund tax paid in excess of the amount due under the Act, but it does not confer a power of review over a completed assessment. Refund can be granted where the amount payable has been lawfully reduced by appellate or revisional action, or where the assessment itself already stands modified, but not by reopening the assessing officer's own concluded decision on the footing that it was legally wrong. Allowing refund on that basis would in substance permit the refund authority to sit in appeal over an assessment and unsettle final assessment proceedings.

Conclusion: The application for refund could not be entertained on the basis of an alleged error of law in the assessment unless the assessment was first set aside or modified in proper proceedings; the answer was in the negative and against the assessees.

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