Reassessment requires the correct statutory basis; a rectification notice cannot sustain reopening without a reasoned speaking order.

Reassessment under the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act must be founded on the correct statutory power, and a notice confined to rectification of clerical or arithmetical mistakes cannot validly support a reopening exercise. Where the authority relies on escape of turnover or a different tax rate, it must clearly invoke the reassessment provision, state the statutory basis, and deal with objections through a reasoned speaking order. Here, the reopening notice did not disclose a proper reassessment basis and failed to address the dealer's objections on exemption entries and circulars, so the reopening and consequential revised assessments were legally unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether the reassessment initiated by invoking Section 84 of the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006 was legally sustainable, and whether the consequential revised assessment orders could be upheld.

Analysis: The notice issued for reopening referred to Section 84, which is confined to correction of clerical and arithmetical mistakes, while the material placed before the Authority showed that the exercise was one of reassessment. The reopening power, if at all available, had to be exercised under Section 27(1) of the Tamil Nadu Value Added Tax Act, 2006, with disclosure of the specific statutory basis for treating the turnover as escaped assessment or assessable at a different rate. The notice did not clearly set out such a proposal, and the objections based on exemption entries and governmental circulars were not dealt with by a reasoned speaking order. On the record, the attempt to reopen the assessment was therefore procedurally and legally unsustainable.

Conclusion: The reopening and the consequential assessment orders were illegal and could not be sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: Reassessment must be initiated under the specific statutory power that authorises it, and a notice that invokes a provision confined to rectification cannot sustain a reopening exercise without a clear and reasoned statutory basis.

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