Entry tax assessment against a non-filer failed where the statute lacked express authority to assess after long delay.

Entry tax could not be assessed and recovered from an importer long after the vehicle was brought into the local area because the Act contained no express provision authorising assessment of a non-filer who had not filed a return. The return obligation under section 7 arose only where tax liability existed, and the statutory scheme provided assessment on returns, best judgment assessment within limitation, and separate reassessment, but not a standalone power to assess a person who never filed a return. In taxing statutes, liability cannot be imposed by implication. The demand and assessment were therefore unsustainable, and the importer was relieved from the impugned tax demand.

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Issues: Whether entry tax could be assessed and demanded from the importer long after the vehicle was brought into the local area, in the absence of any specific provision in the Entry Tax Act authorising assessment of a person who had not filed a return.

Analysis: The liability to file a return under section 7 arose only if the importer was liable to pay tax under the Entry Tax Act. On the facts, the excavator had been imported in 1995 when it was not being treated as a motor vehicle liable for registration under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, and the legal position was clarified only later by the Supreme Court. The Act provided for assessment on the basis of returns and for best judgment assessment within the prescribed limitation, and it also contained a separate regime for reassessment. However, it did not contain a specific enabling provision to assess an importer who had not filed a return at all. In a taxing statute, liability cannot be created by implication, and the assessing authority required express legislative authority to levy and recover tax from a non-filer after such a lapse of time.

Conclusion: The demand and assessment of entry tax were not sustainable, and the assessee was entitled to succeed on this issue.

Final Conclusion: The direction to pay entry tax was set aside, and the assessee was relieved from the impugned tax demand.

Ratio Decidendi: A taxing authority cannot assess and recover tax from a person who had no enforceable return obligation at the relevant time unless the statute expressly authorises such assessment.

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