Suo motu revision limitation and credit-note deductions under sales tax turn on reassessment timing and proof of trade discount.

Where an assessment is set aside on remand and a fresh reassessment is made, the six-year period for suo motu revision runs from the reassessment order, and the earlier assessment does not continue to control limitation because it has ceased to survive. On the sales-tax issue, credit notes were not treated as deductible trade discount where the full price had been realised, the invoices did not disclose any discount at the time of sale, and no recurring discount scheme was shown to operate at removal of the goods. The revisional view was supported by the statutory definitions of sale price and turnover, together with the applicable trade-discount principle.

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Issues: (i) Whether the suo motu revisional power was exercised within limitation; (ii) whether additional discount by way of credit notes was deductible in computing sale price and turnover.

Issue (i): Whether the suo motu revisional power was exercised within limitation.

Analysis: Rule 245 of the West Bengal Sales Tax Rules, 1995 permits suo motu revision within six years from the date of the assessment order sought to be revised. The appellate order had set aside the original assessment in its entirety and remanded the matter for fresh assessment. The reassessment order dated 22 March 2004 was the operative order subsequently revised on 9 February 2010, and the period of six years was reckoned from that reassessment order. The doctrine of merger did not bar revision because the original assessment had ceased to survive after being set aside on remand.

Conclusion: The revisional action was within limitation and was valid.

Issue (ii): Whether additional discount by way of credit notes was deductible in computing sale price and turnover.

Analysis: Sections 2(31) and 2(40) of the West Bengal Sales Tax Act, 1994 were applied to the facts found by the authorities, namely that the full price had been realised with sales tax and surcharge, the invoices did not disclose any discount at the time of sale, and no recurring discount scheme was shown to have operated at the point of removal of goods. On those findings, the credit notes were not a trade discount deductible from sale price or turnover. The earlier allowance of the claim was treated as an apparent error and the revisional authority's view was supported by the statutory definitions and the applicable trade-discount principle.

Conclusion: The deduction claimed through credit notes was not allowable and the revisional order was .

Final Conclusion: The challenge to the revisional order failed, as the revision was timely and the credit-note claim did not qualify as deductible trade discount under the Act.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an assessment is set aside and a fresh reassessment is made on remand, limitation for suo motu revision runs from the reassessment order, and a credit-note adjustment is not deductible as trade discount unless it is part of the sale transaction and reflected at the time of sale.

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