TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1980 (11) TMI 149
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.... certain transactions amounting to Rs. 6,94,560 and Rs. 13,03,760 respectively had escaped assessment in respect of those two years. The reopening of the assessments was made only on the basis of certain entries said to be contained in the books of account of M/s. Peirce Leslie India Ltd. Though the assessee had requested for an opportunity to cross-examine the representative of M/s. Peirce Leslie India Ltd., the assessing authority refused to comply with the said request and completed the reassessment proceedings. On appeals filed by the assessee before the concerned Appellate Assistant Commissioner of Sales Tax, the reassessment orders were set aside and the matters were remanded to the assessing authority for fresh disposal for affording an opportunity to the assessee to cross-examine the representative of M/s. Peirce Leslie India Ltd. After the remand, one Shri R.V. Narasimhan, Assistant Manager of M/s. Peirce Leslie India Ltd., was examined before the assessing authority and his evidence regarding the nature of the transactions between M/s. Peirce Leslie India Ltd. and the assessee-firm and a statement of accounts extracted from the books of the company were also brought on re....
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....at the case was governed., by the dictum laid down by this Court in Deputy Commissioner of Agricultural Income-tax and Sales Tax v. Alwaye Agencies [1974] 34 STC 467 since, in the opinion of the assessing authority, the facts were exactly similar. The assessing authority accordingly held that there had been a transfer of property in. the goods from M/s. Peirce Leslie India Ltd. to the assessee and the subsequent supply of the goods in question by the assessee to the co-operative societies and estate owners were by way of sale. The reassessment proceedings for the years 1972-73 and 1973-74 were completed by the addition of Rs. 6,94,558.95 and Rs. 13,03,760 respectively for 1972-73 and 1973-74 as escaped turnover and subjecting the same to tax. 5.. The assessments for the years 1974-75 and 1975-76 were subsequently taken up and they were finalised by including in the taxable turnover of the assessee Rs. 34,83,850 and Rs. 42,13,270 respectively representing the turnover relating to the disputed transactions relating to copper sulphate, oleocop and agricultural spraying oil supplied to the co-operative societies, etc. The appeals filed by the assessee before the Appellate Assistant ....
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....only to a commission in respect of such sales canvassed by it. The entries in the personal folio of the assessee in the books of M/s. Peirce Leslie India Ltd. were explained by the witness as having been made only with a view to watch the collection of the sale proceeds from the buyers, such a procedure being insisted on account of the fact that the relationship of the assessee with M/s. Peirce Leslie India Ltd. was that of a del credere agent who had undertaken the responsibility of carrying out the due payment of the prices by the buyers. We do not find anything in the statement of accounts furnished by M/s. Peirce Leslie India Ltd. which helps the department to establish that the transactions in question were sales effected by the assessee to the co-operative societies, etc. The evidence of Shri Narasimhan has not been disbelieved by the assessing authority and in the face of the said evidence it is difficult to understand how the assessing authority and the Tribunal thought it fit to rely on the statement of accounts of M/s. Peirce Leslie India Ltd. as furnishing a basis for reaching the conclusion that the transactions in question were sales effected by the assessee. The invoi....
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....ning only as an agent in effecting the disputed transactions or whether the firm itself was the seller. The finding entered by the Tribunal that the assessee had dominion over the goods and that the transactions in question were sales effected by the assessee is based on inferences drawn by it from six invoices issued by M/s. Inkemex India Ltd. in May, 1975, a pro forma invoice dated 9th June, 1975, issued by the assessee and five bills issued by M/s. Peirce Leslie India Ltd. in the name of Kappad Service Co-operative Society Ltd. Having gone through these documents we are unable to see how they furnish any legal basis for the inference drawn by the Tribunal that the assessee had dominion over the goods before delivery and had effected the sales of the commodities covered by the invoices. The nature of the transactions covered by the invoices and bills referred to above has been explained by the Assistant Manager of Peirce Leslie India Ltd., who was examined before the assessing authority and one would have expected the Tribunal to advert to his evidence while dealing with the question as to what inferences could legally be drawn from the invoices, etc. Unfortunately, the Tribunal ....