Best judgment assessment under Entry Tax law requires prior reasonable opportunity to prove return correctness before assessment proceeds.

Best judgment assessment under the Orissa Entry Tax Act, 1999 cannot be sustained unless the dealer is first given a reasonable opportunity to prove the correctness and completeness of the return. The assessing notice in this matter related only to the sales tax return and did not effectively invite the dealer to meet the entry tax assessment, so the statutory safeguard in the proviso to section 7(4) was not complied with. Rule 15(1) of the Orissa Entry Tax Rules, 1999, which contemplates simultaneous assessment with sales tax proceedings, cannot override that mandatory statutory requirement. The assessment was therefore quashed and the matter directed for reconsideration after due opportunity.

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Issues: Whether the assessment made under the Orissa Entry Tax Act, 1999 for the relevant period was liable to be quashed for want of reasonable opportunity to prove the correctness and completeness of the return, and whether rule 15(1) of the Orissa Entry Tax Rules, 1999 could override the requirement contained in the proviso to section 7(4) of the Act.

Analysis: Section 7(4) of the Orissa Entry Tax Act, 1999 authorises best judgment assessment where the return appears incorrect or incomplete, but its proviso mandates that the dealer must first be given a reasonable opportunity to prove the correctness and completeness of the return. The notice relied upon by the assessing authority was directed to the sales tax return under the Orissa Sales Tax Act, 1947 and did not call upon the dealer to meet the entry tax assessment under the Orissa Entry Tax Act, 1999. On that basis, no effective opportunity under the proviso to section 7(4) was afforded. Rule 15(1) of the Orissa Entry Tax Rules, 1999, which contemplates simultaneous assessment with sales tax proceedings, cannot displace the statutory safeguard in the proviso to section 7(4); the opportunity must precede any best judgment assessment under the Entry Tax Act.

Conclusion: The assessment under the Orissa Entry Tax Act, 1999 was rightly quashed for breach of the mandatory requirement of reasonable opportunity, and the matter was directed to be reconsidered after giving such opportunity.

Ratio Decidendi: A best judgment assessment under the Orissa Entry Tax Act, 1999 cannot be sustained unless the dealer is first given the statutory reasonable opportunity to prove the correctness and completeness of the return, and a procedural rule permitting simultaneous assessment cannot override that mandatory safeguard.

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