TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1956 (4) TMI 30
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.... by deduction of such excess from the amount of tax due in respect of any other period: "Provided that no claim to refund of any tax paid under this Act shall be allowed unless it is made within twenty-four months from the date on which the order of assessment was passed or within twelve months of the final order passed on appeal, revision, or reference in respect of the order of assessment, whichever period is later. "Provided further that the Collector shall first apply the excess paid in respect of any period towards the recovery of any amount in respect of which a notice under sub-section (4) of section 12 may have been issued and shall then refund the balance remaining, if any". The assessment order was made on 28th November, 1952. On ....
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....ppli- cants, because the Sales Tax Officer had made a considerable delay in re- plying to their applications for refund, when he suggested that an appeal should be filed. According to the Additional Collector of Sales Tax, "if a dealer claims for a refund he has to put in his claim at the time of assessment before the Sales Tax Officer" and that even after the assessment order had been passed the applicants were at liberty to pre- fer an appeal against the assessment order in time if they subsequently thought that they had forgotten to put in their claim for refund at the time of assessment. As neither of these courses had been adopted by the applicants, the Additional Collector dismissed the application for refund, remarking, "For this rej....
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....wn to the dealers in question after the assessment had been made within the period of limitation allowed for an application for refund. In the Sales Tax Act applicable to this case the period of limitation was one year instead of two years as in the Bombay Sales Tax Act, 1946. In our opinion the view taken by the Additional Collector and pressed by Mr. Kabe is not correct, as section 13 of the Act makes no mention of any requirement that the claim for refund should be made before the assessment order is passed by the Sales Tax Officer. In a few cases the order of refund may be made by the assessing authorities, but that does not appear to be the general practice; there is no column in Form No. XIX in which the grant of a refund is to be sho....