Self-assessment acceptance under Odisha VAT required formal departmental communication; absent that, reopening could not stand.

For a self-assessment filed before 1 October 2015, reopening under Section 43(1) of the Odisha Value Added Tax Act, 2004 was not sustainable unless the department had formally communicated acceptance or otherwise acknowledged the self-assessment. The HC applied the earlier coordinate Bench view, as affirmed by the Supreme Court, and treated the absence of such communication or acknowledgment as fatal to reassessment. It also proceeded on the basis that payment of assessed tax did not waive the statutory right to seek revision. The assessee succeeded, and the impugned order was quashed.

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Issues: Whether, for a self-assessment made and filed before 1 October 2015, the absence of formal communication or departmental acknowledgment of acceptance barred reopening and reassessment under Section 43(1) of the Odisha Value Added Tax Act, 2004.

Analysis: The ruling turned on the legal position that, for tax periods prior to 1 October 2015, a self-assessment could be treated as accepted only if there was a formal communication or acknowledgment by the department. The Court also proceeded on the footing that payment of the assessed tax did not amount to waiver of the statutory right to seek revision. Applying the earlier coordinate Bench view, as confirmed by the Supreme Court, the Court found that the petitioner's self-assessment had neither been formally communicated as accepted nor acknowledged by the department. In those circumstances, reopening under Section 43(1) could not be sustained.

Conclusion: The issue was answered in favour of the assessee. The self-assessment was held not to have been accepted, and the impugned order was set aside and quashed.

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