Annual sales tax levy cannot be finally assessed on quarterly returns before year-end unless the statute expressly permits it.

Sales tax under the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948 was treated as an annual levy on a dealer's taxable turnover, while quarterly or monthly returns were only machinery for collection. On that reading, and in the absence of clear statutory authority or provisional-assessment machinery, the Assessing Authority could not make a final assessment before the assessment year closed. The premature assessment was therefore without jurisdiction and was quashed, leaving the authority free to complete a proper assessment after the year ended.

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Issues: Whether the Assessing Authority could validly make a final assessment of sales tax for quarterly returns before the close of the assessment year under the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948.

Analysis: The charging provisions of the Act treat sales tax as a yearly levy on the taxable turnover of a dealer, while the provisions requiring quarterly or monthly returns are only machinery provisions for collection. The Supreme Court's exposition in the earlier decision on the Act was treated as settling the nature and incidence of the tax as annual, with periodical returns serving only as a mode of collection. Reading the Act as a whole, including the reassessment provision, the Court held that there was no clear and explicit authority for making a final assessment during the pendency of the assessment year on each quarterly return. The absence of any provisional-assessment machinery also supported the conclusion that the assessment had to await the close of the year.

Conclusion: The assessment made before the expiry of the assessment year was without jurisdiction and was quashed, leaving the authority free to make a proper assessment after the assessment year ended.

Ratio Decidendi: Where sales tax is structured as an annual levy, periodical returns and collection machinery do not authorise a final assessment before the close of the assessment year unless the statute expressly provides for such premature assessment.

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