TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2015 (8) TMI 1354
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....e or Sale Therein Act, 1993. It is not in dispute that the petitioner had filed its returns from time to time and paid taxes on the basis of the said returns. With respect to the period 2012-2013, an audit objection was made by the office of the Accountant General (Audit), Bihar on 3.12.2014 stating that the petitioner had paid admitted Entry Tax of Rs. 65,99,050 only against its liability of Rs. 1,31,22,392.74 and had thus short paid its Entry Tax to the extent of Rs. 65,23,342.74 and further there was a concealment of its purchase turnover to the extent of Rs. 3,47,44,360/- for which Entry Tax and penalty would come to a total Rs. 1,11,181.94. On the basis of the said audit objection, notices were issued to the petitioner not only with respect to the period 2012-13, for which the audit objection was recorded but also with regard to other three periods, namely, 2009-10, 2011-12 and 2013-14. The petitioner filed its reply giving the details with regard to the year 2013-14 on 25.2.2015 and with regard to the other financial years it was stated that it had Centralized finance and accounts department and was working on the same to retrieve data and other related documents and accor....
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....e was any material on the record of the Assessing Officer to have raised any such issue and yet the onus was thrown upon the petitioner to show that the stock transfers had not been made after use by making wrong reliance upon the third proviso to sub-section (1) of Section 3 of the Bihar Entry Tax Act. It is submitted that all that the petitioner is required to show is that the goods that had been imported into a local area were not used for the purpose of consumption, use or sale, rather they were sent in the course of the inter-State transfer or stock transfer to the Branch of the petitioner itself. It is submitted that there is no requirement under the Entry Tax Act to further show that before such transfer was made there had not been any use of the goods. If at all any such plea is raised by the revenue then there must be some material in possession of the Assessing Officer to raise such plea and only when such material is put to the assessee it would be for the assessee to meet the same. It is further submitted that the proceedings having been started on an audit objection under Section 33 of the Act and further the remaining three periods under Section 31 by relying on th....
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....ulates that there must be a direct nexus or live link between the material coming to the notice of the Income-tax Officer and the formation of his belief that there has been escapement of the income of the assessee from assessment in the particular year because of his failure to disclose fully and truly all material facts. It is no doubt true that the court cannot go into the sufficiency or adequacy of the material and substitute its own opinion for that of the Income-tax Officer on the point as to whether action should be initiated for reopening assessment. At the same time we have to bear in mind that it is not any and every material, howsoever vague and indefinite or distant, remote and farfetched, which would warrant the formation of the belief relating to escapement of the income of the assessee from assessment. The fact that the words "definite information" which were there in section 34 of the Act of 1922, at one time before its amendment in 1948, are not there in section 147 of the Act of 1961, would not lead to the conclusion that action can now be taken for reopening assessment even if the information is wholly vague, indefinite, far-fetched and remote. The reason for the....
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....is found, in that case a penalty equal to three times of tax may be imposed under sub-section (2) of Section 31 of the Act. It is urged by learned counsel that the above interpretation of Section 31 of the Act is clear in the provisions of sub-section (1) which clearly mentions the said two situations, particularly when it is read with sub-section (2) of Section 31 of the Act where if the dealer has concealed, omitted or failed to disclose full and correct particulars of sale or purchase, it is liable to penalty. It is also urged by learned Principal Additional Advocate General that the Statute should be read as a whole and no part should be considered as superfluous. The further submission on behalf of the respondents is that under the third proviso to Section 3 (1) of the Entry Tax, the burden is upon the importer to prove that the imported goods were imported not for the purpose of consumption, use or sale but for purposes other than the same and thus upon failure to prove the same, the Assessing Officer has rightly held the same against the petitioner. Learned counsel also submits that twice the petitioner had prayed for time but did not produce relevant documents a....
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....oceedings are initiated under section 31 of the Act then all that the assessee would be required to show is to justify the figures mentioned in the relevant columns of the statutory forms on the basis of his books of accounts and other materials in the possession of the dealer. It is an established principle that in the course of making re-assessment of tax on account of escaped turnover or some such reason, it is open to the Officer to go beyond the notice issued so as to recover any tax which is found to be clearly due on the basis of the materials on the record but the same does not give any right to the Assessing Officer to raise issues as though he was conducting a fishing or roving enquiry in the matter. There was nothing in the audit objection with regard to the goods having been sent out of the State after use nor anything has been placed before us in the pleadings of the respondents to show that there was any material before the Assessing Officer to show that the goods had been transferred out of the State after use within the State. In the said circumstances, in the proceedings under Section 31 of the Act, it was not open to the Assessing Officer to have proceeded i....