https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=191313 Penalty under the Kerala Value Added Tax Act cannot be sustained when the authority acts mechanically, without independent consideration of the assessee's factual position and without recording satisfaction that wilful evasion or mens rea exists. The High Court found that the penalty orders had relied on an earlier precedent without examining whether the petitioner was in fact engaged in the taxable works contract activity alleged, and without applying the statutory precondition for penalty to the case at hand. The penalty orders were quashed and remitted for fresh de novo consideration, and the connected penalty notices were also directed to be reconsidered by the assessing authority. en-us Wed, 28 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0530 Thu, 30 Mar 2017 09:37:33 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=191313 Penalty under the Kerala Value Added Tax Act cannot be sustained when the authority acts mechanically, without independent consideration of the assessee's factual position and without recording satisfaction that wilful evasion or mens rea exists. The High Court found that the penalty orders had relied on an earlier precedent without examining whether the petitioner was in fact engaged in the taxable works contract activity alleged, and without applying the statutory precondition for penalty to the case at hand. The penalty orders were quashed and remitted for fresh de novo consideration, and the connected penalty notices were also directed to be reconsidered by the assessing authority. Case-Laws VAT and Sales Tax Wed, 28 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=191313