Limitation for reopening deemed assessment runs from the statutory assessment date, not from later communication of intimation.

An application under section 46A(4) of the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994 for reopening a deemed assessment was held to be governed by the six-month limitation period running from the statutorily fixed date of deemed assessment, not from the date of communication of an assessment intimation. Reading sections 46A(1), (3) and (4) with section 45(1), the tribunal treated 31 December 1999 as the operative commencement date for limitation. Departmental intimation could not displace the statutory scheme, and the communication-based limitation principle relied on was found inapplicable. The reopening application was therefore time-barred and not maintainable.

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Issues: Whether an application under section 46A(4) of the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994 for reopening a deemed assessment was barred by limitation, and whether the six-month period began from the statutorily fixed date of deemed assessment or from the date of communication of the assessment intimation.

Analysis: Section 46A fixed 31 December 1999 as the date of deemed assessment. Reading sub-sections (1), (3) and (4) together with section 45(1), the statutory scheme made the six-month period for seeking reopening run from that deemed assessment date. The Court held that no further communication was required to start limitation, and the practice of departmental intimation could not override the statute. The relied-upon principle that limitation may run from communication in an appeal context was held inapplicable because the statute itself had fixed the date of deemed assessment.

Conclusion: The application for reopening was time-barred and not maintainable; the challenge to the Deputy Commissioner's order failed.

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