Independent satisfaction for VAT reassessment is required; reliance only on an excise notice cannot sustain reopening.

A reassessment under the Gujarat Value Added Tax Act cannot rest solely on a show-cause notice issued by another department; the assessing authority must independently examine the material and record its own satisfaction that taxable turnover escaped assessment. Although third-party material may justify reopening in an appropriate case, a mere excise notice does not establish clandestine removal or VAT evasion by itself. Here, no independent inquiry or conclusion was made by the assessing officer, so the reassessment order was unsustainable and was quashed in favour of the assessee.

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Issues: Whether a reassessment under the Gujarat Value Added Tax Act, 2003 could be sustained when the assessing authority relied only on a show-cause notice issued by the Excise Department without making an independent inquiry or recording its own satisfaction.

Analysis: The reassessment was founded on the premise that an excise raid and the consequent notice to the dealer indicated suppressed sales and evasion. The Court held that material collected by another authority may, in an appropriate case, justify reopening, but the assessing authority must still examine that material and form an independent view that taxable turnover had escaped assessment. In the present case, no such independent exercise was undertaken. The assessing officer merely relied upon the excise show-cause notice and did not conclude, on his own assessment, that there had been clandestine removal of goods or escapement of VAT liability. A mere initiation of proceedings by the Excise Department could not, by itself, justify an adverse VAT reassessment.

Conclusion: The reassessment order was unsustainable and was quashed in favour of the assessee.

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