TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2007 (10) TMI 603
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....n No. 19481051067. In this petition filed under section 8 of the West Bengal Taxation Tribunal Act, 1987, the applicant has challenged the provisional assessment order dated March 6, 2007 passed by the Sales Tax Officer, Lyons Range Charge (in short, "the STO/ LR") under section 45 of the VAT Act for the period quarter ended on December 31, 2006 though in the cause title, it has been wrongly stated that the said order was passed by the Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Lyons Range Charge. The order dated June 8, 2007 passed by the Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Chowringhee Circle (in short, "DCCT/CH") confirming the order of provisional assessment as aforesaid has also been challenged. The facts of t....
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.... said provisional assessment within thirty six days from the date of filing of the return for quarter ending December 31, 2006. In the opinion of the applicant, such assessment ought to have been made after expiry of six months from the prescribed date for furnishing the return for the quarter in question. (vi) DCCT/CH did not accept the interpretation made by the applicant and confirmed the order of STO/LR. Sri S. Chakrabarty, Advocate, appearing along with Sri D.B. Thakur, Advocate, on behalf of the petitioner, admitted that the applicant was a defaulter in the matter of submission of returns for the quarter ended on December 31, 2006 and in compliance with the notice issued by STO/LR, the return was duly submitted on March 5, 2007 as de....
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....ion 45 of the VAT Act, shall assess the dealer on the basis of past returns, or past records, and where no such returns or records are available, on the basis of information received by the Commissioner and where the dealer fails to pay the net tax for any tax period within the date extended by the Commissioner, shall impose a penalty not exceeding twice the amount of tax so assessed and direct the dealer by a notice to pay the amount of tax assessed, interest determined and penalty imposed in such manner and within such date as may be prescribed. It was, in the circumstances, contended by the learned advocate that the concerned authorities could only take into consideration the relevant information relating to the transaction effected duri....
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....of India [1993] 199 ITR 530. In that case, honourable judges of the Supreme Court observed, "the courts have generally read into the provisions of the relevant sections a requirement of giving a reasonable opportunity of being heard before an order is made which could have adverse civil consequences for the parties affected. This would be particularly so in a case where the validity of the section would be open to a serious challenge for want of such an opportunity". The ground taken by the applicant at the appellate forum regarding the period, on expiry of which a provisional assessment under section 45(2) of the VAT Act could be made was not pressed at this stage by the learned advocate. Finally, it was submitted by the learned ....
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....plication filed by the applicant for time cannot be considered to be a valid application. It was also observed by him that the applicant could have enquired from the authority concerned as to the fate of the application in question. It was further submitted by the learned State Representative that as per provision of section 45 of the VAT Act, there is no scope of allowing any opportunity to a dealer while making a provisional assessment. He also strongly opposed the submission of the learned advocate for the applicant that instead of considering the earlier returns, the assessing authority ought to have considered only the information relating to the relevant period. In the circumstances, as per submission of the learned State Representati....
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....uld have waited for the order of respondent No. 1 does not seem to be acceptable to us because of the fact that a person cannot be asked to wait indefinitely. It is also to be mentioned here that when this order was passed on March 6, 2007, STO/LR had with him the return relating to the quarter ending on December 31, 2006 which was submitted by the applicant on March 5, 2007. It is seen from the records that STO/LR while making the provisional assessment also took into consideration the returns filed for the quarter ending on December 31, 2006 along with returns filed in June 30,2006 and September 30, 2006. As per provision of section 45(2) of the VAT Act, the assessing authority while making provisional assessment is supposed to take into ....