Incomplete bought vouchers alone cannot justify reassessment or penalty without evidence of suppressed purchases or production.

Reopening of sales tax assessment and penalty cannot rest on incomplete bought vouchers alone where the record does not support suppression of groundnut purchases or unaccounted production. The assessee had produced the vouchers in the original assessment and explained that the oil was manufactured from agriculturists' purchases. The revenue's inference of purchases outside the books and crushing in a sister concern was rejected because the available material, including the sister concern's negligible electricity consumption and earlier closure, did not corroborate that case. On that basis, reassessment and the consequential penalty were treated as unjustified.

---

---

Issues: Whether reopening of the sales tax assessment and levy of penalty were justified on the basis that the bought vouchers for groundnut purchases were incomplete and the purchases were allegedly unaccounted and crushed in a sister concern.

Analysis: The assessment had been reopened on the premise that the assessee had made huge purchases of groundnut oil outside the books and that the bought vouchers were deficient because they did not contain the complete particulars of the agriculturists. The assessee had, however, produced bought vouchers during the original assessment and explained that the oil had been manufactured from groundnut purchases made from agriculturists. The material on record did not support the revenue's inference that the purchases were suppressed or that they were crushed in the sister concern. The meter reading of the sister concern showed virtually no electrical consumption, and it was also shown that the sister concern had stopped its activities several years earlier.

Conclusion: The reopening of assessment and the consequential penalty were unjustified, and the assessee's explanation was accepted.

Ratio Decidendi: Mere incompleteness of bought voucher particulars, without supporting material to show suppression of purchases or production, is insufficient to sustain reassessment or penalty when the assessee's explanation is otherwise supported by the record.

---