Retrospective sales tax amendments permit rectification of completed assessments and tax declared-goods purchase turnover despite claimed CST non-liability.

Retrospective amendments to the State sales tax law and section 15(b) of the Central Sales Tax Act made the State levy on declared goods payable and limited reimbursement to cases where the statutory conditions were satisfied. The proviso to section 5(4) required payment of tax under the State Act and proof of a subsequent inter-State sale with Central sales tax payment before reimbursement could be claimed. On that basis, an assessee could not defeat rectification of an erroneous completed assessment by arguing that no Central sales tax liability arose, because the separate issue of Central sales tax liability did not bar the State authority from correcting the assessment and bringing the purchase turnover to tax.

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Issues: Whether, after the retrospective amendments to the sales tax statutes, the assessee could resist rectification of the completed assessment and avoid levy of tax on the purchase turnover of declared goods on the ground that no Central sales tax had been paid.

Analysis: The assessment had originally excluded the purchase turnover of declared goods because of an earlier judicial view. The later retrospective amendments to the State Act and section 15(b) of the Central Sales Tax Act altered that position and made the State levy on declared goods payable, with reimbursement becoming available only when the statutory conditions were satisfied. The proviso to section 5(4) of the State Act required payment of tax under the State Act and proof of subsequent inter-State sale and payment of Central sales tax before reimbursement could be claimed. The contention that no liability to pay Central sales tax arose because tax was not collected from purchasers did not negate the State authority's power to rectify the assessment, since the court was not concerned with the separate question of liability under the Central Sales Tax Act.

Conclusion: The rectification and consequential levy under section 5(4) of the State Act were valid, and the challenge failed.

Final Conclusion: The assessee was not entitled to retain the earlier exemption, and the assessment was rightly rectified to bring the purchase turnover of the declared goods to tax.

Ratio Decidendi: Where retrospective amendments make a State levy on declared goods operative and make reimbursement conditional on statutory compliance, the assessee cannot resist rectification of an erroneous assessment by asserting the absence of Central sales tax liability; reimbursement, if otherwise available, depends on satisfaction of the prescribed conditions after tax has been paid under the State Act.

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