Concealment penalty cannot be imposed for mere delayed payment of admitted tax where a separate penalty provision applies.

A concealment penalty under Section 36(2)(c) read with Explanation (1) could not be sustained where the assessee had disclosed returns and turnover but merely delayed payment of admitted tax. The provision targets concealment or furnishing inaccurate particulars, while delayed payment is separately dealt with under Section 36(3) with different ingredients and penalty scale; the same reasoning also defeated the corresponding penalty under the Central Sales Tax Act through Section 9(2A), so the penalty was held unsustainable and the reference was answered for the assessee.

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Issues: Whether penalty under Section 36(2)(c) read with Explanation (1) could be sustained for mere failure to pay tax in full within the prescribed time, and whether the same reasoning governed the corresponding penalty imposed under the Central Sales Tax Act through Section 9(2A).

Analysis: Section 36(2)(c) of the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1959 is directed to concealment of turnover or knowingly furnishing inaccurate particulars of a transaction. Explanation (1) creates a legal fiction only where the statutory conditions are met, but it does not convert every default in payment into concealment. The Act separately deals with failure to pay tax within time in Section 36(3), and that provision has different ingredients, different safeguards, and a different scale of penalty. Since the assessee had disclosed the returns and turnover but only delayed payment of the balance tax, the case was one of delayed payment, not concealment. The same defect applied to the penalty purportedly imposed under the Central Sales Tax Act through Section 9(2A).

Conclusion: Penalty under Section 36(2)(c) read with Explanation (1) was not attracted. The penalty imposed for mere non-payment within time was unsustainable, and the answers to the referred questions were in favour of the assessee and against the revenue.

Ratio Decidendi: A concealment penalty cannot be imposed for mere failure to pay admitted tax within time where the statute separately provides a distinct penalty for delayed payment; penalty provisions must be strictly construed according to their own ingredients.

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