Wrong tax rate can qualify as a rectifiable mistake when the issue is apparent from the record.

The rectification provision was interpreted to cover mistakes apparent from the record, including mistakes of law, and not merely arithmetical errors. A wrong application of the rate of tax to a commodity may therefore be examined in rectification if the issue can be decided from the record. Purely debatable controversies remain outside the provision, but a threshold refusal was not justified where the assessee had not been given an effective opportunity to establish the commodity's true nature and the applicable entry. The assessment had to be reconsidered on merits by the assessing authority after hearing the assessee.

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Issues: Whether application under the rectification provision could be invoked to correct an assessment where the assessee contended that a wrong rate of tax had been applied to the commodity, and whether such controversy was within the scope of rectification as a mistake apparent from the record.

Analysis: The rectification provision was construed broadly to include mistakes apparent from the record, including mistakes of law, and not to be confined to arithmetical errors alone. The provision also contemplated correction by assessing, appellate, revisional and other competent authorities, subject to limitation and hearing requirements where enhancement of liability is involved. Although genuinely debatable questions may fall outside the provision, the Court held that a clear claim that a wrong rate of tax had been applied is capable of being examined under rectification, especially where the assessee was not given an effective opportunity to establish the true nature of the commodity and the applicable entry. The matter, therefore, required a merits-based determination rather than rejection at the threshold.

Conclusion: The question of applying the correct rate of tax could be examined under the rectification provision as a possible mistake apparent from the record, and the matter had to be reconsidered by the assessing authority after hearing the assessee.

Ratio Decidendi: A wrong application of the rate of tax may constitute a mistake apparent from the record and be amenable to rectification where the issue can be decided on the record and without refusing adjudication on a mere threshold objection.

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