Reassessment under sales tax law is limited to escaped turnover or lower-rate assessment, not reopening concluded assessments for under-assessment.

Section 16 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act permits reassessment only for escaped turnover under section 16(1)(a) or for turnover assessed at a lower rate under section 16(1)(b). The text states that a successor assessing authority cannot use section 16 to reopen a concluded assessment on the footing of under-assessment or to exercise revisional powers not conferred by the statute. The proper revisional route is section 32, and the later special provision in section 12-A had no application to the assessment year concerned. On that basis, the Tribunal's setting aside of the reassessment was upheld and the revision failed.

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Issues: Whether the assessing authority could reopen a concluded assessment under section 16 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959, in a case which was in substance one of under-assessment and not escaped turnover.

Analysis: Section 16(1)(a) applies only where turnover has escaped assessment, and section 16(1)(b) applies where turnover has been assessed at a rate lower than the rate at which it is assessable. The reassessment made by the successor assessing authority was not a case of escaped assessment, but an attempt to exercise revisional or review-like powers which did not vest in that authority. The proper revisional mechanism under the Act was section 32, and the special provision in section 12-A, introduced later, had no application to the assessment year in question. Rule 18-C also had no bearing on the case.

Conclusion: Section 16 could not be invoked to reopen the concluded assessment in the circumstances, and the Tribunal was right in setting aside the reassessment. The revision was liable to fail and the assessee succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: The power to reassess under section 16 is confined to escaped turnover or lower-rate assessment and cannot be used by the assessing authority to reopen a concluded assessment on grounds of under-assessment or to exercise revisional powers not conferred by the statute.

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