Reassessment jurisdiction requires a valid assessment or deemed self-assessment before escaped turnover proceedings can be sustained.

Section 40 reassessment under the Assam Value Added Tax Act, 2003 is available only after a valid assessment or deemed self-assessment has been completed under the statutory scheme. Returns must be filed within the prescribed time under Section 29 and Rule 17, and deemed assessment under Section 35 arises only when the required returns are filed in the prescribed manner and within time. Section 39 also limits completion of assessment after five years from the end of the relevant year. Where these jurisdictional preconditions are absent, Section 40 cannot be used on an alleged escaped turnover basis, and any reassessment order and demand notice issued without such foundation are without jurisdiction.

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Issues: Whether reassessment under Section 40 of the Assam Value Added Tax Act, 2003 could be sustained in the absence of a valid assessment or deemed self-assessment under Section 35 within the prescribed time, and whether the impugned reassessment order and demand notice were without jurisdiction.

Analysis: The statutory scheme required dealers to furnish returns within the time prescribed under Section 29 of the Assam Value Added Tax Act, 2003 and Rule 17 of the Assam Value Added Tax Rules, 2005. Section 35 treated assessment as deemed to have been made only where all returns and annual or revised returns were filed in the prescribed manner and within time. Section 39 barred completion of assessment after five years from the end of the relevant year. Section 40 could be invoked only where a dealer had already been assessed under Section 34, 35, 36 or 37, and only then could the authority proceed on the footing of escaped turnover. On the facts, the returns for the relevant year were not filed within the prescribed time, no valid assessment in law had been completed, and the foundational requirement for invoking Section 40 was absent.

Conclusion: Reassessment under Section 40 was not maintainable, and the impugned reassessment order and demand notice were illegal and without jurisdiction.

Ratio Decidendi: Section 40 of the Assam Value Added Tax Act, 2003 can be invoked only after a valid assessment or deemed self-assessment has been completed under the Act within the prescribed framework; absent that jurisdictional precondition, reassessment is void.

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