Late declaration forms need sufficient cause; statutory canteen sales are taxable as incidental business transactions despite no profit motive.

Late-produced declaration forms can support concessional tax treatment only if the dealer proves sufficient cause for not filing them earlier and shows bona fide diligence; unreliable documents and doubtful correspondence defeat that claim. Sales from a statutory canteen maintained for workers are treated as part of business turnover where the sales-tax definition of business extends to transactions incidental or ancillary to trade, commerce or manufacture, and profit motive is immaterial. On the stated facts, the concession claim failed and the canteen sales remained taxable.

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Issues: (i) whether declaration forms produced for the first time at the revisional stage could be accepted so as to grant concessional tax treatment; (ii) whether canteen sales made for employees under the statutory canteen arrangement were liable to sales tax as part of the dealer's business.

Issue (i): whether declaration forms produced for the first time at the revisional stage could be accepted so as to grant concessional tax treatment.

Analysis: Relief for late-produced declaration forms depends on whether the dealer shows that it was prevented by sufficient cause from producing them before the assessing authority. The materials placed before the revisional authority were found to be doubtful, including correspondence that did not inspire confidence and an apparently spurious letterhead, which undermined the claim of due diligence and bona fide pursuit of the forms. In the absence of reliable proof that the dealer had been prevented by sufficient cause, the revisional authority was justified in refusing to entertain the forms produced for the first time at the revisional stage.

Conclusion: The claim for concession based on late-produced declaration forms failed.

Issue (ii): whether canteen sales made for employees under the statutory canteen arrangement were liable to sales tax as part of the dealer's business.

Analysis: The definition of business under section 2(1a) of the Bengal Finance (Sales Tax) Act, 1941 is materially similar to the amended definition considered by the Supreme Court in the cited authorities, extending to transactions incidental or ancillary to trade, commerce or manufacture and making profit motive immaterial. In light of that broader definition, supplies from a canteen maintained for workers in compliance with the Factories Act are sales falling within business, even if the canteen is operated as a service facility and not for profit. The statutory obligation to maintain the canteen does not exclude the resulting turnover from taxation.

Conclusion: The canteen sales were taxable as part of the dealer's business.

Final Conclusion: The challenge to the assessment and revisional orders failed on both the late declaration forms issue and the canteen sales issue, and the demand was sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: Late production of declaration forms can be accepted only on proof of sufficient cause and bona fide diligence, and canteen supplies made under a statutory canteen obligation are taxable where the sales-tax definition of business includes incidental or ancillary transactions irrespective of profit motive.

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