Reassessment of escaped turnover notice under sales tax law is valid even without exact quantified turnover or final assessment order.

Section 16(1)(a) of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act permits reassessment of escaped turnover where proceedings are duly initiated and completed within the statutory framework; a completed final assessment order need not exist within the limitation period for jurisdiction to arise. The presence of section 16(4), which excludes time spent under stay orders, does not narrow that power. The notice was also valid because the statute requires only a reasonable opportunity to the dealer, not any prescribed form or quantified statement of the exact escaped turnover. A notice that clearly invokes reassessment under section 16 is sufficient.

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Issues: Whether the notice issued for assessment of escaped turnover under section 16(1)(a) of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 was without jurisdiction because it did not amount to a final assessment within the limitation period, and whether the notice was invalid for not specifying the escaped turnover in exact terms.

Analysis: The expression used in section 16(1)(a) does not require a completed assessment order within the limitation period; initiation and completion of reassessment proceedings are sufficient. The statutory scheme does not change merely because section 16(4) excludes time spent under stay orders. The earlier Supreme Court interpretation of analogous sales tax language treated assessment as the entirety of the proceedings and not merely the final order, and the existence of a provision excluding stayed periods did not restrict that power. On the validity of notice, the statute requires a reasonable opportunity to the dealer, but it prescribes no particular form. The notice in question expressly referred to assessment of escaped turnover under section 16, and the absence of a quantified turnover in the notice did not invalidate it.

Conclusion: The notice was valid and the reassessment proceedings were within jurisdiction; the challenge failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Under section 16(1)(a), reassessment of escaped turnover is not invalid merely because the notice does not itself conclude the assessment or specify the exact escaped turnover, so long as it clearly initiates proceedings and affords a reasonable opportunity to the assessee.

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