Plain meaning of tax paid controls the penalty presumption; pre-assessment payment is included under the Sales Tax Act.

For the presumption under the penalty explanation to section 36(2)(c) of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959, the phrase "the total amount of tax paid" includes tax paid after the return is filed but before the assessment, reassessment, appellate, or revisional order is made. The provision operates only as a rebuttable presumption where tax paid is below eighty per cent of tax assessed or reassessed, and its language must be read plainly without adding a further time restriction. Payment made before assessment therefore counts for the statutory comparison, although concealment may still be proved independently of the presumption.

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Issues: Whether, for the purpose of the presumption in the explanation to section 36(2)(c) of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959, the expression "the total amount of tax paid by the dealer for any year" includes tax paid after filing of the return but before the assessment order is passed.

Analysis: The explanation operated in the field of penalty and created only a rebuttable presumption where the tax paid was found to be less than eighty per cent of the tax assessed or reassessed. On a plain reading, the phrase "the total amount of tax paid" referred to the amount paid up to the point when the assessment, reassessment, or appellate or revisional order was made. In a taxing provision, nothing can be added to or read into the statutory language, and if the language is clear, inconvenience or possible evasion cannot justify a strained construction. If a dealer makes payment after the time prescribed by the Act but before the assessment order, that payment is still part of the tax paid up to the date of assessment, though the department may still prove concealment independently of the statutory presumption.

Conclusion: The phrase includes tax paid after filing of the return but before the assessment order. The question was answered in the negative, in favour of the dealer.

Final Conclusion: The statutory presumption under the penalty provision was not attracted merely because the dealer paid tax before assessment rather than with the return, and the reference was answered for the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: In a taxing and penal provision, the statutory phrase "tax paid" must be given its plain meaning up to the relevant assessment date, and no additional temporal limitation can be read into it to enlarge the presumption of concealment.

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