Amended sales tax penalty provision allows penalty for late payment even before tax is formally assessed

After the 1964 amendment to section 16(1)(b) of the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, failure to pay tax within the time allowed attracts penalty even if the tax has not yet been formally assessed or ascertained as due. The amended wording extends liability beyond unpaid tax already determined, so the existence of a prior assessment is not a precondition for imposing penalty. The earlier Supreme Court ruling on the pre-amendment language did not govern the amended provision. The penalty order was therefore legally sustained.

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Issues: Whether penalty under section 16(1)(b) of the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, 1954 could be imposed for failure to deposit tax within the prescribed period even though the tax had not yet been ascertained or assessed.

Analysis: The liability provision was amended in 1964. Before amendment, penalty was attracted where the dealer had, without reasonable cause, failed to pay tax due within the time allowed. After amendment, the language extended to failure to pay within the time allowed any tax, fee or penalty. The earlier Supreme Court ruling concerned the pre-amendment wording and therefore did not govern the amended provision. Under the amended text, liability to penalty arises from failure to pay within time, and it is not necessary that the tax must already have been assessed as due.

Conclusion: Penalty under section 16(1)(b) was legally leviable, and the order sustaining the penalty was correct.

Ratio Decidendi: After the 1964 amendment to section 16(1)(b) of the Rajasthan Sales Tax Act, 1954, failure to pay tax within the time allowed attracts penalty even if the tax has not yet been formally assessed or ascertained as due.

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