Provisional assessment must follow the return filed and cannot adopt a different valuation basis at that stage.

A provisional assessment under section 20 of the Karnataka Agricultural Income-tax Act must be made summarily on the basis of the return, accounts and supporting documents filed by the assessee. The assessing authority cannot conduct a roving enquiry, reject the declared basis, or substitute a different valuation rate of its own choice at that stage. Rule 9(c) may be applied only when its jurisdictional conditions are satisfied, which is a matter for regular assessment rather than provisional assessment. The returned basis, as filed or clarified, remains the foundation for the provisional computation.

---

---

Issues: Whether, while making a provisional assessment under section 20 of the Karnataka Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1957, the assessing authority could disregard the basis disclosed in the return and apply a different valuation rate under rule 9(c) of the Rules.

Analysis: Section 20 requires the assessing authority to proceed in a summary manner and to make a provisional assessment on the basis of the return and the accompanying accounts and documents. The provision does not authorise a roving enquiry into disputed questions of law or fact, nor does it permit the authority to reject the assessee's declared basis and substitute a different standard of its own choice. The scope of provisional assessment is limited, and the analogy of section 141 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, shows that the return as filed or as clarified must be taken as the foundation for the provisional computation. Rule 9(c) can be invoked only when its jurisdictional conditions are satisfied, which is a matter for regular assessment, not provisional assessment.

Conclusion: The assessing authority could not, at the provisional assessment stage, apply a different rate than that returned by the assessee; the action was unauthorised and the challenge succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: A provisional assessment must be made summarily on the basis of the assessee's return and accompanying material, without rejecting the returned basis or deciding disputed questions that belong to regular assessment.

---