TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2016 (9) TMI 1116
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....or short) and is engaged in the business undertaking works contract for construction of industrial establishment and factory buildings. The assessee is thus a dealer as defined in section 2(10)(f) of the VAT Act. The assessee applied to the Commercial Tax officer on 13.5.2006 seeking permission to pay a lumpsum tax under section 14A of the VAT Act. The said authority however, by an order dated 9.11.2006 rejected such an application on the ground that the assessee had applied for composition of tax for eight works contract which had commenced during the financial year 2005-2006 and, therefore, as per the provisions of the Gujarat Value Added Tax Rules, 2006("the said Rules" for short), such permission cannot be granted. The assessee challeng....
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.... the assessee was executing at the time of application but which had commenced prior to 1.4.2006. Only on the ground that the works started prior to 1.4.2006, the Government authority rejected the application. The Tribunal referred to Rule 28(8)(b)(iii) to project that in any case the application had to be filed within 30 days from the commencement of work was not done. 5. Section 14A of the VAT Act pertains to composition of tax on works contract and reads as under : "14A Composition of tax on works contract. (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, the Commissioner may, in such circumstances and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed, permit every dealer referred to in subclause( f) of clause(10) of section 2 to p....
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....nt for our purpose reads as under : "(b) The Commissioner shall after making such inquiry as he thinks fit, grant the permission subject to the provisions of the Act, these rules and the conditions specified as follows, namely: (i) Such permission be granted in Form 215 (Within fifteen working days from the date of receipt of an application) in respect of the contracts for which option to pay compensation money is exercised and such permission is effective from the date of the beginning of the date of this contract and till its conclusion. (ii) An application made under this rule shall be in respect of those contracts, which begin during the period for which the dealer hold valid registration certificate under the Act. (iii) Such an....
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.... to be made within 30 days from the beginning of the contract. However, in cases where the works contract is ongoing during the year 2006-2007, the last date for filing the application would be 30.11.2006, in such a case, the requirement of filing application within 30 days from the commencement of work envisaged in clause(iii), would not apply. 8. The authorities below however, did not apply these provisions as explained above and merely with the aid of clause (iii) rejected the assessee's application for composition of tax on the ground that the same was beyond 30 days from the commencement of the contract. Had clause (iiia) not been added to subrule( 8) of rule 28, perhaps their view may even have been correct. It may be that when t....