Reassessment of sales turnover requires a live nexus to actual transactions, not a generalized market-price estimate.

Reassessment under section 18 of the Assam General Sales Tax Act, 1993 requires material giving the assessing authority a bona fide reason to believe that turnover has escaped assessment, been under-assessed, or taxed at a lower rate. Where original assessments were completed under section 17(4) after scrutiny of books and records, reassessment cannot rest on a generalized market-price estimate alone. The text states that applying average wholesale prices from external trade and marketing sources to sale quantities, without showing suppression of primary facts or examining actual transactions, lacked the necessary live nexus to the alleged escapement. On that basis, the reassessment orders were treated as invalid and unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether reassessment of turnover under section 18 of the Assam General Sales Tax Act, 1993 was valid when the original assessments had been completed under section 17(4) on the basis of books of account and the reassessment was founded on audit information and market-price data for onion.

Analysis: The reassessment power under section 18 can be invoked only where the assessing officer has reason to believe that turnover has escaped assessment, has been under-assessed, or has been assessed at a lower rate. Production of books and other evidence does not automatically amount to disclosure of every material fact, but the belief required by section 18 must rest on relevant material having a rational connection with the alleged escapement. Here, the original assessments showed that the accounts and records had been examined and accepted after enquiry under section 17(4). The reassessment, however, proceeded by applying an average wholesale market price gathered from trade bodies and agricultural marketing sources to the quantities sold, without determining the actual sale transactions or showing that the petitioners had withheld primary facts. The use of a generalized market average, especially in relation to a perishable commodity with fluctuating prices and varied grades, did not furnish a reliable basis to conclude that turnover had escaped assessment.

Conclusion: The reassessment was not supported by the statutory preconditions under section 18 and was therefore invalid.

Final Conclusion: The impugned reassessment orders and the appellate orders were unsustainable and were set aside, with the writ petitions allowed.

Ratio Decidendi: Reassessment of completed sales-tax assessment cannot rest on a generalized market-price estimate unless the assessing authority has material with a live nexus to the assessee's actual transactions and a bona fide reason to believe that turnover truly escaped assessment.

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