CST return frequency follows State return period when State law permits annual returns, not monthly filing.

Section 9(2) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 applies the State sales tax machinery to CST assessment, collection and return requirements, including the return period. Rule 11 of the Central Sales Tax (Registration and Turnover) Rules, 1957 links the CST turnover period to the period for which the dealer is liable to submit returns under the general sales tax law of the appropriate State. Where a dealer is permitted to file annual returns under the State law, the CST return frequency must also be annual, and monthly returns cannot be insisted upon under rule 5(1) of the Central Sales Tax (Tamil Nadu) Rules. The challenge to the vires of that rule became unnecessary on this basis.

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Issues: Whether a dealer permitted to file annual returns under the State sales tax law could be compelled to file monthly returns under the Central Sales Tax (Tamil Nadu) Rules, and whether the impugned order refusing annual CST returns was liable to be quashed.

Analysis: Section 9(2) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 makes the State sales tax machinery applicable for assessment, reassessment, collection and enforcement of CST liability, including provisions relating to returns and provisional assessment. Rule 11 of the Central Sales Tax (Registration and Turnover) Rules, 1957 ties the period of turnover under the CST regime to the period in which the dealer is liable to submit returns under the general sales tax law of the appropriate State. Since the dealer had been permitted to submit annual returns under the State law, the CST return period had to follow the same basis. In that situation, rule 5(1) of the Central Sales Tax (Tamil Nadu) Rules could not be used to insist upon monthly returns, and the challenge to its vires became unnecessary to decide.

Conclusion: The assessee was entitled to file CST returns annually, and the order refusing that permission was quashed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where section 9(2) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 applies, the CST return and assessment machinery follows the State sales tax return period, so the dealer's CST return frequency must conform to the State law period of return liability.

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