TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2009 (11) TMI 833
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....hat M/s. Suraj Industries Limited, a small-scale industrial unit (in short, "the SS unit") is engaged in manufacturing vegetable ghee and refined oil. The said industry has been declared as "pioneer unit" by the State of HP, vide notification dated October 18, 1993, whereby, the said industry has been exempted from payment of tax for manufacturing vegetable ghee and refined oil. The assessment order was passed on February 2, 1999 for the assessment year 1994-95, under the H.P. General Sales Tax Act (in short, "the Act") as well as, under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 (in short, "the CST Act") by A.E.T. C. cum-assessing authority, Kangra District holding that sales tax benefit shall be liable to be paid as below: (i) Sales tax on the sale of bye-products/ residue; (ii) the process of filtration is manufacturing activity of oil and, as such, liable to sales tax; (iii) Central sales tax at 10 per cent is leviable on inter-State sales of vegetable ghee and refined oil as well as over the byeproducts, in absence of non-submission of statutory form C. Being aggrieved by the said order, M/s. Suraj Industries Limited has preferred Appeals No. 78 of 1999-2000 and 79 of 1999-2000 and th....
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....bmitted for claiming tax exemption in reference to the transaction of exempted products made in inter-State sale? The observations made in the order dated July 6, 2007 are given as below: "The first issue to be considered here is to subject of limitation. The order of the Tribunal is dated December 15, 2000 whereas the reference application has been filed by the Excise and Taxation Commissioner on July 15, 2000. An application for condonation of delay has also been filed under section 33(1) of the H.P. General Sales Tax Act. The limitation prescribed is 60 days and on the face of it this application appears to be hopelessly time-barred. The applicant has stated that no copy of the order of the Tribunal was endorsed to him (Excise and Taxation Commissioner) although one copy was received in the office of AETC, Kangra on December 29, 2000. The AETC has no power to file a reference application under section 33 of the Act and therefore it was necessary for the Tribunal to have endorsed a copy of the order to the Excise and Taxation Commissioner which was not done. The applicant allegedly came to know of the order only on March 5, 2002 when the respondent submitted a refund applic....
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....; (4) If the High Court is not satisfied that the statements in a case referred under this section are sufficient to enable it to determine the question raised thereby, it may refer the case back to the Financial Commissioner to make such additions thereto or alterations therein as the court may direct in that behalf. (5) The High Court upon the hearing of any such case shall decide the question of law raised thereby, and shall deliver its judgment thereon containing the grounds on which such decision is founded and shall send to the Financial Commissioner a copy of such judgment under the seal of the court and the signature of the Registrar, and the Financial Commissioner shall dispose of the case accordingly. (6) Where a reference is made to the High Court under this section, the cost (including the disposal of the fee) shall be in the discretion of the court. (7) The payment of the amount, if any, of the tax due in accordance with the order of the Financial Commissioner, in respect of which an application has been made under sub-section (1), shall not be stayed pending the disposal of such application or any reference made in consequence thereof but if such am....
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....ure, 1908 in the same manner as if it were a decree of the court'. This is a significant departure from the provisions of the Arbitration Act, 1940. Under the 1940 Act, after the time to set aside the award expired, the court was required to 'proceed to pronounce judgment according to the award, and upon the judgment so pronounced a decree shall follow (section 17)'. Now the consequence of the time expiring under section 34 of the 1996 Act is that the award becomes immediately enforceable without any further act of the court. If there were any residual doubts on the interpretation of the language used in section 34, the scheme of the 1996 Act would resolve the issue in favour of curtailment of the court's powers by the exclusion of the operation of section 5 of the Limitation Act." (c) Relying on the decisions of the honourable Supreme Court in Singh Enterprises v. Commissioner of Central Excise, Jamshedpur [2008] 12 VST 542; [2008] 3 SCC 70, Commissioner of Customs, Central Excise, Noida v. Punjab Fibres Ltd., Noida [2008] 3 SCC 73, Pondicherry State Cooperative Consumer Federation Ltd. v. Union Territory of Pondicherry [2007] 10 VST 630; [2008] 1 SCC 206 and....
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....that the appellant was prevented by sufficient cause from presenting the appeal within the aforesaid period of sixty days, allow it to be presented within a further period of thirty days. (2) Every appeal under this section shall be in the prescribed form and shall be verified in the prescribed manner." 7.. It is to be noted that the periods "sixty days" and "thirty days" have been substituted for "within three months" and "three months" by Act 14 of 2001, with effect from May 11, 2001. 8.. The Commissioner of Central Excise (Appeals) as also the Tribunal being creatures of statute are vested with jurisdiction to condone the delay beyond the permissible period provided under the statute. The period up to which the prayer for condonation can be accepted is statutorily provided. It was submitted that the logic of section 5 of the Indian Limitation Act, 1963 (in short, "the Limitation Act") can be availed of for condonation of delay. The first proviso to section 35 makes the position clear that the appeal has to be preferred within three months from the date of communication to him of the decision or order. However, if the Commissioner is satisfied that the appellant was prev....