Successor assessing authority may validly initiate sales tax penalty without starting it with the original assessment.

Penalty under sales tax law may be initiated by the assessing authority having jurisdiction at the relevant time, even after transfer of the assessment file and a revised assessment by a successor officer. The statute did not require penalty proceedings to begin simultaneously with the original assessment, and section 14(4-B) required only reasonable opportunity and necessary inquiry before a penalty direction was issued. The court noted that the Deputy Commercial Tax Officer had territorial and pecuniary jurisdiction when the revised assessment was made, so the penalty levy was legally sustainable.

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Issues: Whether the successor assessing authority, after transfer of the assessment file and making a revised assessment, could validly initiate and levy penalty under the sales tax law, and whether such penalty proceedings had to be commenced simultaneously with the original assessment.

Analysis: The power to levy penalty was held to be an enabling power vested in the assessing authority under section 14(2), and the statute did not prescribe any time-limit requiring the penalty proceedings to begin with the original assessment. Section 14(4-B) required only that a reasonable opportunity be given and such inquiry as necessary be made before a penalty direction was issued. Since the Deputy Commercial Tax Officer was the statutory assessing authority at the relevant time, had territorial and pecuniary jurisdiction, and had made the revised assessment after transfer of the file, there was no legal requirement that the same individual who made the original assessment alone could continue the matter.

Conclusion: The successor assessing authority was competent to initiate and levy the penalty, and the contention that penalty proceedings were invalid because they were not simultaneous with the original assessment was rejected.

Final Conclusion: The Tribunal's view was set aside and the penalty levy by the Deputy Commercial Tax Officer was upheld as lawful.

Ratio Decidendi: Under section 14(2), penalty may be initiated by the assessing authority having jurisdiction at the relevant time, and the statute does not require the same officer who made the original assessment to impose the penalty or require simultaneous initiation with the assessment.

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