https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=164401 Section 77(1) of the West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003 was construed to preserve the authority's discretion to impose penalty up to the statutory maximum for transporting goods without proper documents at a check-post. The proviso prescribing fixed penalty rates by tax category was held directory, because a mandatory reading would have made the main penalty provision redundant. Applying harmonious construction, the fixed rates operate as ordinary norms, but departure is permissible in exceptional cases for recorded reasons within the outer ceiling of the main provision. On the stated facts, the failure to produce endorsed documents was not treated as a mere technical breach, and the penalty was not considered arbitrary. en-us Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0530 Tue, 09 Dec 2014 16:07:00 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=164401 Section 77(1) of the West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003 was construed to preserve the authority's discretion to impose penalty up to the statutory maximum for transporting goods without proper documents at a check-post. The proviso prescribing fixed penalty rates by tax category was held directory, because a mandatory reading would have made the main penalty provision redundant. Applying harmonious construction, the fixed rates operate as ordinary norms, but departure is permissible in exceptional cases for recorded reasons within the outer ceiling of the main provision. On the stated facts, the failure to produce endorsed documents was not treated as a mere technical breach, and the penalty was not considered arbitrary. Case-Laws VAT and Sales Tax Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=164401