Rectification for error apparent on the record was required after a later exemption made the assessment ?

The assessing authority was required to rectify the assessment under section 55 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 where a statutory exemption under section 17(1) was granted after the turnover had been assessed, because the claim concerned the same ambulance van transaction and was raised within the five-year rectification period. Once the tax collected had been refunded, the assessment disclosed an error apparent on the face of the record. In that situation, rectification by the assessing authority itself was the proper course, and the assessee could not be compelled to seek revision under section 32. The refusal to rectify and the direction to pursue revision were illegal.

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Issues: Whether the assessing authority was bound to rectify the assessment under section 55 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 on the basis of the exemption granted under section 17(1) of the Act, and whether the petitioner was wrongly directed to pursue revision under section 32 of the Act.

Analysis: The sale turnover had already been assessed when the statutory exemption notification was subsequently issued, but the petitioner had brought the matter to the assessing authority within the five-year period prescribed for rectification. The exemption related to the very same ambulance van transaction and, once the tax collected had been refunded, the assessment disclosed an error apparent on the face of the record. In those circumstances, the proper course was rectification by the assessing authority itself, and not insistence on a revision petition before the revisional authority.

Conclusion: The refusal to exercise rectification power under section 55 and the direction to proceed under section 32 were held to be illegal, and the petitioner succeeded.

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