Statutory declaration required for iron and steel tax exemption; additional appeal evidence justified remand for fresh scrutiny.

Exemption from purchase tax on iron and steel under the Karnataka Sales Tax Act depends on the dealer discharging the burden of proof through the prescribed statutory declaration in form 32B, and alternative evidence is ordinarily insufficient. Where the assessee produced additional declarations for the first time in appeal and explained that they had not been counter-signed earlier, the assessing authority had not examined their compliance with the Act and Rules. The record therefore did not justify a final rejection of the exemption claim, and fresh consideration of the additional documents by the assessing authority was warranted.

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Issues: Whether exemption from tax on the purchases of iron and steel could be denied solely for want of form 32B under section 6A of the Karnataka Sales Tax Act, and whether the additional forms produced for the first time in appeal warranted remand for fresh consideration.

Analysis: The burden of proving that a transaction is not liable to tax lies on the dealer. For claiming exemption in respect of iron and steel liable to first purchase tax, the statutory declaration in prescribed form is required and alternative or secondary evidence is not ordinarily sufficient. At the same time, the assessee produced the declarations as additional evidence in appeal and explained that they were not earlier available because they had not been counter-signed at the relevant time. Since the documents were produced for the first time before the Court and their compliance with the Act and Rules had not been examined by the assessing authority, the matter required reconsideration on those materials.

Conclusion: The assessee was not finally denied the exemption claim on the present record, and the matter was rightly remanded to the assessing authority for fresh consideration of the additional documents in accordance with law.

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