Provisional sales tax collection may continue after year-end where the statute permits later payment and further proceedings.

Section 18 of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963 permits provisional assessment, levy and collection of tax for a year in advance during that year, and also empowers the assessing authority to determine the amount payable and fix the time for payment. Read as a whole, the provision does not require collection of provisionally assessed tax to be completed before the financial year ends; that construction would make the later part of the subsection unworkable where appeal or further proceedings may follow. The opening time-limit governs only the making of the provisional assessment, and collection may lawfully occur after year-end. The challenge based on an alleged year-end restriction therefore fails.

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Issues: Whether, under section 18 of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963, provisional assessment, levy and collection of tax must all be completed during the financial year concerned, so as to bar collection after the close of that year.

Analysis: Section 18 permits tax for each year to be assessed, levied and collected in advance during the year in prescribed instalments, and also authorises the assessing authority to determine the amount payable and fix the time for payment. Read as a whole, the provision does not support the view that collection must necessarily be completed before the close of the financial year. Such a construction would make the later part of the subsection unworkable, especially where appeal and further proceedings may follow a provisional assessment. The preferable construction is that the time-limit in the opening part governs the making of the provisional assessment, while the collection of tax provisionally assessed may take place even after the year has ended. Though a taxing statute admitting of two plausible interpretations may ordinarily be construed in favour of the subject, the text here, read harmoniously, does not justify the petitioner's contention.

Conclusion: The restriction that provisional tax must be collected only during the financial year does not apply, and the challenge to the demand fails.

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