Appeal-linked tax refund is limited to the disputed amount; voluntary payments outside the appeal cannot be reclaimed.

Refund under the appeal-refund provision arises when appellate relief is granted, even if the assessment is annulled as time-barred, but the refund remains limited to the tax actually in dispute in the appeal. Amounts voluntarily paid along with returns and not challenged in appeal attain finality and cannot be reclaimed merely because the assessment is set aside. A withholding provision may delay payment while departmental proceedings are pending, but that restraint ends once the departmental revision is dismissed. The operative effect is that refund is confined to the appeal subject-matter, not the entire amount paid under the assessment.

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Issues: Whether the assessee was entitled to refund of tax paid under the assessment order after the appellate tribunal set aside the assessment as time-barred, and whether refund under the refund-on-appeal provision extended to the amount actually in dispute.

Analysis: Section 33-B of the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act applies when refund becomes due as a result of an order passed in appeal or other proceeding, and the reason for setting aside the assessment is not material so long as relief is granted in the appeal. Section 14(1) requires assessment to be made within four years, and an assessment beyond that period is not enforceable. However, the refund under section 33-B is confined to the amount forming the subject-matter of the appeal. The amount paid voluntarily along with the returns and not challenged in appeal had attained finality and could not be claimed merely because the assessment was annulled. Section 33-C enables withholding of refund when further proceedings are pending at the instance of the department, but that position ceased once the departmental revision was dismissed.

Conclusion: The assessee was entitled to refund only to the extent of the disputed tax covered by the appeal, and not to the whole amount paid under the assessment.

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