Purchase tax adjustment permits check-gate collections to offset admitted tax liability where statutory conditions are met.

Purchase tax remained payable on black gram bought from cultivators because liability arose on the purchase transaction itself, but amounts collected at the check gate as a protective anti-evasion measure were not a second levy and could be adjusted against the dealer's admitted tax liability. The adjustment under Rule 36 was not confined to tax paid personally by the dealer, and check-gate receipts could satisfy the certification requirement. The absence of the purchase turnover in the original return did not defeat adjustment where the purchases were otherwise established, reducing the balance demand accordingly.

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Issues: Whether purchase tax was payable by the dealer on black gram purchased from cultivators even though tax had been collected at the check gate from the cultivators, and whether such amount could be adjusted against the dealer's admitted tax liability.

Analysis: Liability to purchase tax arises on the purchase transaction, and tax cannot be levied or collected without authority of law. The collection at the check gate was a protective measure intended to prevent evasion and not a second levy on the same transaction. Rule 36, especially its last proviso, permits adjustment of tax paid at a check-post or barrier against the admitted tax payable by a dealer, subject to certification by the Sales Tax Officer. The language of the proviso does not confine adjustment only to amounts paid by the dealer himself, and receipts issued by the check-gate officer may serve the purpose of the required certificate. The fact that the return did not initially show the purchase turnover did not defeat the substantive entitlement to adjustment where the purchases were otherwise established.

Conclusion: The dealer remained liable to pay purchase tax on the purchase turnover of black gram, but the tax collected from the cultivators at the check gate had to be adjusted against the admitted tax payable, thereby reducing the balance demand.

Final Conclusion: The reference was answered by affirming the dealer's purchase-tax liability while recognising the statutory right to adjust the check-gate payments against the tax due.

Ratio Decidendi: Amounts collected at a check-post or barrier under the protective machinery of the sales tax law may be adjusted against the dealer's admitted tax liability where the statutory conditions for adjustment are satisfied, and such adjustment is not confined to payments made personally by the dealer.

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