Refund entitlement after assessment is set aside is immediate; pending reassessment alone cannot justify withholding refund.

When assessment orders and the resulting tax demands are set aside, payments made against those demands cease to rest on any subsisting liability and become refundable under the refund provision. Pending reassessment does not make the refund application premature, because any fresh liability remains only contingent until it is lawfully determined. The authority may withhold refund only by exercising the specific statutory withholding power in the manner prescribed by the Act. In the absence of such an order, the refund cannot be refused merely because reassessment proceedings are still pending.

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Issues: Whether refund applications filed after the assessments were set aside but before reassessment were premature and whether the refund could be withheld until reassessment was completed.

Analysis: A dealer becomes entitled to claim refund under the refund provision when the amount paid is in excess of the amount due under the Act. Once the assessment orders and the resulting demands are set aside, the payments made against those demands are no longer referable to any subsisting liability and the demand foundation disappears. Reassessment may create a future liability, but that liability is only contingent until determined. The statutory power to withhold refund is a separate safeguard and can be invoked only in the manner provided by the Act. In the absence of an order under the withholding provision, the authority cannot refuse refund merely because reassessment proceedings are pending.

Conclusion: The refund applications were not premature, and the authority was bound to process the refund instead of rejecting it on the ground that reassessment had not yet been completed.

Ratio Decidendi: When an assessment is set aside and the resulting demand is wiped out, tax paid against that demand becomes refundable under the refund provision, and pending reassessment does not postpone that entitlement unless refund is validly withheld under the specific statutory power.

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