Post-assessment acceptance of supporting certificates can justify fresh tax consideration and prevent refusal based on completed assessment.

Supporting certificates needed for concessional taxation may be entertained even after assessment, where governing instructions and settled practice permit consideration on sufficient cause; a tax authority therefore cannot refuse to examine an Industrial Input Certificate merely because the assessment is complete. Once that refusal is set aside, any levy depending on the certificate, including tax on Rubber Profile, requires fresh consideration. The remaining disputed heads may also be redone with an opportunity to file materials, raise objections, and receive a personal hearing before a fresh assessment order is passed.

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Issues: (i) Whether the assessing officer could refuse to accept the Industrial Input Certificate after completion of assessment and insist that the assessee file appeals; (ii) whether the assessment orders, at least to the extent they related to the tax on sale of Rubber Profile and the other disputed heads, required setting aside and fresh consideration.

Issue (i): Whether the assessing officer could refuse to accept the Industrial Input Certificate after completion of assessment and insist that the assessee file appeals.

Analysis: The assessee sought acceptance of the Industrial Input Certificate to claim the concessional rate of tax after assessment was completed. The governing administrative instructions and the settled position referred to in the order recognized that declaration forms and similar supporting documents could be entertained after assessment on sufficient cause. In that backdrop, the refusal to consider the certificate rested on an incorrect view that the assessing authority lacked jurisdiction to examine it after assessment.

Conclusion: The refusal to accept the Industrial Input Certificate was held unsustainable, and the intimation rejecting it was set aside in favour of the assessee.

Issue (ii): Whether the assessment orders, at least to the extent they related to the tax on sale of Rubber Profile and the other disputed heads, required setting aside and fresh consideration.

Analysis: Since the levy on Rubber Profile depended on production and acceptance of the Industrial Input Certificate, the finding on that head could not stand once the refusal to consider the certificate was set aside. As to the remaining heads, the order recorded that the assessee was willing to pay the disputed tax and be heard afresh. The matter was therefore fit for reassessment with an opportunity to place materials and raise objections, with personal hearing before a fresh order was passed.

Conclusion: The assessment was set aside to the limited extent of the Rubber Profile issue and remanded for reconsideration, and the remaining disputed heads were also directed to be redone after compliance and hearing, in favour of the assessee in part.

Final Conclusion: The decision grants partial relief by invalidating the refusal to entertain the Industrial Input Certificate and directing fresh assessment on the affected issues, while leaving the other disputes open for reconsideration by the assessing authority.

Ratio Decidendi: A tax authority cannot decline to consider a supporting certificate required for concessional taxation merely because assessment has already been completed, where the governing instructions and settled law permit such material to be examined on sufficient cause.

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