(1.) STATE of Karnataka, being aggrieved by the common order passed by the Karnataka Appellant tribunal, Bangalore in S. T. A Nos. 860-867/1998 dated 10. 12. 1999, is before this Court in these revision petitions by the said order, the Tribunal has set aside the order passed by the joint commissioner of Commercial Taxes (Administration), Gulbarga, in the present case Revisional authority for the assessment years 1986-87 to 1993-94.
(2.) FACTS for the purpose of disposal of these revision petitions are as under; Respondent herein is a company incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956. It is also a registered dealer both under the provisions of the Karnataka Sales Tax Act as well as the Central Sales Tax act, herein after referred to as KST Act and CST Act respectively. The trade in which it is engaged is primarily to manufacture and sell cement packed in gunny bags/plastic bags. The assessing Authority while framing the original Order for the assessment years 1986 to 1994, had exempted the turnover pertaining to the packing materials wherever they had suffered local taxes earlier and had levied taxes as applicable to the packing materials.
(3.) THE Assessing Authority having entertained a doubt, and opining that the turnover of the dealer in respect of the assessment years in questions had been assessed at a lower rate than the rate at which it is assessable under the Act, had initiated proceedings under Section 12a of the act to re-compute the escaped turnover. The assessee instead of filing any objections to the proposal made in the show cause notice issued by the Assessing Authority had approached this court, inter alia contending, apart from others the jurisdiction of the authority to initiate the proceedings under Section 12a of the Act to bring to tax the assessed turnover and also had questioned the validity or otherwise of Section 5 (3-D) of the Act, which provided the same rate of tax on containers and contents. The said petition came to be rejected by this Court following its earlier decision in the case of RANGANATHA ASSOCIATES V. STATE OF karnataka, 78 SCT 1. The assessee had carried the matter in a special leave petition before the Apex Court. The Apex Court had set aside the proceedings initiated by the Assessing authority and had further directed the Assessing Authority to re-frame the Orders of assessment by following certain guidelines issued by them in the course of their order. The decision of the apex Court is reported in 101 STC 168. The directions issued by the Apex Court are as under: