2014 (5) TMI 573
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.... on the purchases claimed to have been effected from certain vendors against its tax liability of sales. Intelligence information was received by the Department from the Economic Intelligence Unit to the effect that certain vendors/suppliers of the Petitioner were fictitious and bogus tax invoices had been issued to the Petitioner without the actual delivery of goods and for passing off tax credit without payment or deposit in the treasury. The Assistant Commissioner of Sales Tax, Investigation Branch 'A', Mumbai, conducted a search under section 64 on the premises of the Petitioner on 4 & 5 August 2011. During the course of the search, the statement of a Director of the Petitioner was recorded under section 14 of the MVAT Act. The ....
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....inst whom police complaints were lodged after 1 April 2011. The claim of the Petitioner appears as a beneficiary at sr. no.17 of that list. 3. The contention of the Petitioner is that an F.I.R. was filed against the Petitioner on 22 October 2012. Hence, it is alleged that the name of the Petitioner was uploaded on the web-site on 12 July 2012 even prior to the filing of the F.I.R. Moreover, according to the Petitioner, there was no basis to initiate proceedings under Section 73 of the MVAT Act, 2002 by publication on the website, when the assessment was pending. Finally, it has been urged on behalf of the Petitioner that it is the duty of the Revenue to pursue the hawala dealers who have collected tax. 4. On the other hand, the learne....
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....sons in public interest. Sub-section (1) of Section 73 provides as follows:- "73. Publication and disclosure of Information respecting dealers and other persons in public interest (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in sections 71 and 72, if the State Government is of the opinion that it is necessary or expedient in the public interest to publish or disclose the names of any dealers or other persons and any other particulars relating to any proceedings under this Act in respect of such dealers and persons, it may publish or disclose or cause to be published or disclosed such names and particulars in such manner as it thinks fit." Under sub-section (1), the State Government is empowered to publish or dis....
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....titioner undoubtedly has to be carried out in accordance with law and all facts relevant or necessary for the purpose of assessment will be dealt with in the assessment proceedings. We clarify that the observations contained in this order shall not conclude the assessment proceedings and are only confined to the disposal of the controversy before the Court. 7. The Sales Tax Department of the Government of Maharashtra has investigated hawala operations of about 1555 hawala operators involving about 39,488 beneficiary dealers. According to the State, the hawala operators during the course of the previous three years have passed on an input tax credit of Rs. 1333 crores. The modus operandi is to claim and obtain input tax credit against the....
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.... the Government Treasury either by not filing their returns at all or by filing returns but not paying the full tax due (i.e. "short filing") or where returns are filed but sales to the concerned dealers are not shown (i.e. "undisclosed sales"). (2) Set-off will be denied to dealers where at any stage in the chain of sales a tax invoice/certificate by a defaulter is or has been relied on : (a) In the event of no returns having been filed by the defaulter, the dealers will be denied the corresponding set-off; (b) In the case of short filing, dealers who have purchased from the defaulter will be granted set-off pro rata to the tax paid; &n....
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....e of the Sales Tax Department and dealers denied setoff will also be given the names of the concerned defaulter(s); (6) The above does not apply to transactions by dealers where the certificate/invoice issued is not genuine (including hawala transactions). In such cases, no set-off will be granted to the dealer claiming to be a purchaser; (7) The above should not prevent dealers from adopting such remedies as are available to them in law against the defaulters." As sub-paragraph (6) noted above makes it clear that the modalities which were envisaged were not to apply to transactions by dealers where the certificate/invoice is not genuine (including hawala transactions). It was made clear that in such cases....
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