TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2010 (2) TMI 1074
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....tself to be a public limited company incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 engaged in the execution of contract works of various nature under the State of Assam as well as the Central Government besides being in the business of purchase and sale of plants and machineries of engineering and electrical goods within the State and beyond. It is a registered dealer under the Assam General Sales Tax Act, 1993, Assam Value Added Tax Act, 2003 and the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 and has been paying its dues thereunder to the concerned authorities. As required, it submitted its monthly turnovers with the particulars of tax paid on the basis thereof for the assessment years 2001-02 and 2002-03 under the Assam General Sales Tax Act, 1993 and thereunder claimed deductions under various heads as admissible. On completion of the assessment, the tax liability of the petitioner for the aforementioned years were assessed and on being permitted, the deductions claimed by it, the following amounts were determined to have been paid in excess by way of tax: The above notwithstanding, according to the petitioner, respondent No. 2 , Superintendent of Taxes, Circle 5, Unit A, G.S. Road, Guwahat....
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....ich work out to a massive amount of Rs. 2,02,91,859 has the potential of causing undue hardship to it, besides pleading the untenability of the disputed demand in law as a whole, by the order impugned herein, the revision petitions were rejected. These petitions have been heard at the motion stage in course of which the relevant official records have been produced on behalf of the respondents. No affidavit-in-opposition by them, however, has been filed. Mr. Joshi has persuasively urged that having regard to the scheme of Chapter IX of the Assam Value Added Tax Act, 2003 (for short, hereafter referred to as, "the Act"), the impugned order being wholly incompatible therewith is liable to be adjudged inoperative, null and void. With special reference to section 82 dealing with the revisional power of the Commissioner of Taxes, the learned senior counsel has insisted that having regard to the scope and ambit thereof , its disinclination to interfere with the order of interim deposit by the appellate authority based on its flawed perception of sub-section (5) of section 79 of the Act per se tantamounts to its failure to exercise a jurisdiction vested by law and is thus liable to b....
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....Mr. Saikia also countervailed the petitioner's pleading that the revision petition had not been disposed of on merits. The learned standing counsel pressed into service to buttress his arguments the following decisions: (1) Vijay Prakash D. Mehta v. Collector of Customs (Preventive), Bombay [1989] 72 STC 324 (SC). (2) State of Haryana v. Maruti Udyog Ltd. [2001] 124 STC 285 (SC); [2000] 7 SCC 348. (3) State of Tripura v. Manoranjan Chakraborty [2001] 122 STC 594 (SC); [2001] 10 SCC 740. I have bestowed my conscious consideration to the pleaded facts, the documents on record and the competing arguments advanced. No dissidence as such is discernible on the authenticity or correctness of the facts constituting the factual background. A bare perusal of the order impugned reveals that the revision petition seeking to invoke the jurisdiction under section 82 of the Act had been directed against the order dated May 11, 2009 of the appellate authority ordering deposit of 25 per cent of the disputed tax and interest by the petitioner under section 79(5) of the Act as a pre-requisite for the admission of its appeal. Noticeably, neither any argument as such has been advanced o....
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....accrued thereon, if any: Provided that such authority may stay the recovery of the full or part of the balance amount of tax, interest and penalty, till the disposal of the appeal. . . . Section 82 . . . (2A) An application by a dealer or person shall not be entertained by the Commissioner unless such application is accompanied by satisfactory proof of payment of minimum twenty five per cent of the disputed tax, penalty, if any, imposed and the interest accrued thereon, if any: Provided that the Commissioner may, if it thinks fit, for reasons to be recorded in writing and subject to furnishing of such security as Commissioner may deem fit, admit an application with part payment or without any payment of the disputed amount of tax including penalty, if any, required under this sub-section with a view to mitigate undue hardship which is likely to be caused to the dealer or person if the payment of such disputed amount is insisted on: Provided further that the Commissioner may stay the recovery of the full or part of the balance amount of tax, interest and penalty, till disposal of the application." Visibly, whereas, the precept for the interim deposit vis-a-vis t....
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....which seemingly appear to be plenary in nature has been consciously bridled to conform to the other provisions of the Act. The power therefore by no means can be construed to be absolute in supersession of the other provisions of the statute intended to regulate the same. Any conferment of power antithetical to the otherwise obvious scheme of the legislation as construed cannot thus be envisaged and countenanced. In view of the unambiguous and imperious prescript of section 79(5) requiring the interim deposit of 25 per cent of the disputed tax, penalty if any and the interest accrued thereon without any scope whatsoever for the relaxation thereof, the direction of the appellate authority to that effect therefore can by no means be viewed to be illegal or without authority of law. The impugned order of the revisional authority in the facts and circumstances of the case having regard to the legislative framework under Chapter IX of the Act and the regulated scope and ambit of the revisional jurisdiction as entrenced in section 82 of the Act thus in the estimate of this court is unimpeachable and not demonstrative of the failure of the exercise thereof. In the comprehension of t....