https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=158771 Penalty under section 45A of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act is discretionary and is not attracted by every statutory default; it requires blameworthy conduct such as deliberate, contumacious or conscious disregard of the obligation. On the admitted facts, delayed filing of monthly and annual returns and delayed remittance of tax made the default wilful, so penalty proceedings were justified. However, the case involved delayed compliance rather than tax evasion, and the assessee had later filed the returns and paid tax and interest. The penalty was therefore confined to the statutory maximum applicable to a non-quantifiable contravention, and the impugned orders were modified accordingly. en-us Mon, 24 Feb 1997 00:00:00 +0530 Wed, 06 Nov 2013 18:10:01 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=158771 Penalty under section 45A of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act is discretionary and is not attracted by every statutory default; it requires blameworthy conduct such as deliberate, contumacious or conscious disregard of the obligation. On the admitted facts, delayed filing of monthly and annual returns and delayed remittance of tax made the default wilful, so penalty proceedings were justified. However, the case involved delayed compliance rather than tax evasion, and the assessee had later filed the returns and paid tax and interest. The penalty was therefore confined to the statutory maximum applicable to a non-quantifiable contravention, and the impugned orders were modified accordingly. Case-Laws VAT and Sales Tax Mon, 24 Feb 1997 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=158771