Separate return-filing and tax-payment duties do not make a timely return invalid when admitted tax is not deposited.

Where a sales tax statute separately requires filing of the return and deposit of admitted tax, failure to pay the admitted tax before or with the return does not, by itself, mean the return was not furnished in the prescribed manner. The return remains valid if it is filed within time and in the prescribed form and manner. Such non-deposit may trigger provisional assessment or prosecution for contravention, but it does not attract penalty for failure to furnish the return in the prescribed manner under section 15-A(1)(a).

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Issues: Whether non-deposit of the admitted tax before or along with the return, though the return was filed within time, rendered the return not furnished in the prescribed manner so as to attract penalty under section 15-A(1)(a) of the U.P. Sales Tax Act.

Analysis: The statutory scheme treated the filing of the return under section 7(1) and the deposit of admitted tax under section 7(1-A) as separate obligations. Section 7(1) required the return to be filed within the prescribed time and in the prescribed form and manner, while section 7(1-A) required payment of the admitted tax before or along with the return. Rule 41 similarly dealt separately with the filing of the return and the deposit of tax. The omission to deposit tax did not invalidate the return or make it a return not furnished in the prescribed manner. Such omission could attract provisional assessment under rule 41(3), and possibly prosecution for contravention, but not penalty for failure to furnish the return in the prescribed manner.

Conclusion: The answer was in the negative. Non-deposit of admitted tax by itself did not justify penalty under section 15-A(1)(a) where the return was otherwise filed within time in the prescribed form and manner, and the assessee was entitled to relief.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a statute separately obliges a dealer to file a return and to deposit admitted tax, failure to make the deposit does not mean that the return was not furnished in the prescribed manner unless the return itself is defective or untimely.

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