2018 (1) TMI 340
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....sale and purchase or manufacture of articles so as to be exigible to tax under the UP. Trade Tax Act, 1948 [1948 Act]. The Tribunal has set aside this order by allowing the appeal of the Department in part and while restoring the order passed by the assessing authority, reduced the amount of tax, which according to the respondents had not been fully and faithfully disclosed. The proceedings themselves emanate from a survey of the premises owned by the revisionist on 29 September 2005. During the course of the survey, the team is stated to have noted the existence of 55 sacks of chana, 3 sacks of chana dal, 30 kg of chuni and 4 sacks containing pouches and packages of mustard oil. Upon this discovery, the revisionist was called upon to show....
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....he contentions which stood raised therein were false and misleading. He submitted that the assessee had categorically asserted that it was only processing the articles for and on behalf of individuals who were paying it a conversion charge alone. Shri Kumar submitted that this activity of conversion or processing could not be subjected to tax under any provision of the 1948 Act. Shri Tripathi, learned standing counsel, on the other hand has taken the Court through the order passed by the assessing authority to establish and contend that from the large quantity of material which was found existing on spot as well as the machineries which were found established at the site, it was evident that the assessee was regularly entering into transac....
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....fact occurred and had deliberately not been disclosed by the assessee. However, as this Court reads the orders of the assessing authority as well as the Tribunal, it is more than evident that an adverse view has been taken against the assessee solely on the basis of the existence of the commodities referred to above as well as the placement of machineries on the site. This, in the considered view of the Court, was by itself not sufficient to sustain a levy of tax under the 1948 Act. Admittedly there is no provision under the 1948 Act which raises a presumption rebuttable or conclusive against the assessee merely on the basis of a trader or dealer being found in possession of articles which may be eligible to be traded in. A presumption, co....
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....f purchases: (a) any declaration made or certificate issued by him admitting to be the first purchaser and accepting the liability to pay trade tax on purchase of goods, shall be conclusive evidence of his liability to pay the trade tax on purchase of goods in respect of the transaction specified in such declaration or certificate; (b) the burden of proving the existence of facts and circumstances on the basis of which he claims such exemption from liability shall lie upon him, and in particular, the dealer shall also be liable to disclose full particulars of the person from whom he has purchased the goods in such transaction of purchase; and (c) no such claim shall be accepted unless reasonable opportunity of being heard has been giv....
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....ossession of a dealer or a trader. It would in this connection be apposite to refer to the decision of the Supreme Court in State of West Bengal Vs. Mohd. Khalil (2000) 4 SCC 594. Dealing with a matter which arose from the Entry Tax legislation prevalent in West Bengal, the Supreme Court was called upon to test the validity of a levy of tax on the ground that certain goods were found in the possession of an individual though there was no evidence to suggest that the goods had entered the State for sale, use or consumption therein. Answering the questions which arose, the Supreme Court made the following pertinent observations:- "20. It must be borne in mind that before the tax could be imposed under sub-section (3) of Section 14 of the E....
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....ific provision in the Entry Tax Act. No provision in the said Act is brought to our notice which may enable the authority to raise the presumption that a possessor of the specified goods, who fails to produce before the authority his accounts, register or document on being required to do so, has imported the goods into the Calcutta Metropolitan Area without payment of tax. On the facts and circumstances of the case, it is impossible for a court to infer that the respondent has imported the goods into the Calcutta Metropolitan Area without payment of tax. (emphasis supplied) The legal position with regard to the imperative necessity of a presumption being based upon a legislative provision was reiterated by the Supreme Court in its recent....