Refund of purchase tax on inter-State sale requires strict compliance with prescribed statement and time-limit.

Refund of purchase tax on cotton sold in inter-State trade was held to depend strictly on compliance with the prescribed statutory conditions. The Madras High Court read section 5-A(5) of the Madras General Sales Tax Act with Rule 20 and held that the phrase "where a tax has been levied" refers to tax that has become leviable within the statutory scheme, not a basis for delaying the refund claim until final assessment. Because the dealer did not file the required statement in the prescribed form within time, the conditions for refund were not satisfied and the claim failed.

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Issues: Whether refund of purchase tax on cotton, claimed after its inter-State sale, could be denied for non-compliance with the prescribed statement and time-limit under the relevant rules, and whether the assessee could wait until assessment was completed before seeking refund.

Analysis: Section 5-A(5) of the Madras General Sales Tax Act provided for refund where tax had been levied on the intra-State sale or purchase of goods later sold in the course of inter-State trade or commerce, and the refund was expressly made subject to prescribed conditions. Rule 20 required the dealer to furnish a statement in the prescribed form within the stipulated time so that the authorities could verify the inter-State sale. The Court held that the expression "where a tax has been levied" had to be understood in the context of the scheme as meaning where the tax had become leviable, and that the assessee could not postpone the refund claim until final assessment. Since no statement was filed within time, the statutory conditions for refund were not satisfied.

Conclusion: The refund claim was invalid for non-compliance with the prescribed conditions, and the petition failed.

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