E RAMAMURTHY Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These revision petitions have been filed by the assessee challenging the order dated 07.08.2014 passed by the Karnataka Appellate Tribunal whereby the Tribunal has upheld the imposition of penalty for non-furnishing of declaration in Form-H under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 (for short 'the CST Act') to substantiate its claim that certain items in question which were sold for export would be exempted from payment of tax. The assessment period in question is of May, June, July, August, October and November, 2005 as well as February and March-2006.

(2.) The brief facts of the case are that the petitioner- E.Ramamurthy, who was doing business of extraction and sale of iron ore, died on 05.08.2006, which was after the relevant assessment period and thus, his son and legal heir R.Praveen Chandra was brought on record. For the relevant assessment period the assessee had exported iron ore to the tune of over Rs.43 crores. However, for the export of iron ore amounting to Rs.9,70,80,387/-, the relevant declaration in Form-H had not been furnished, although in the returns filed by the assessee, such sales had been shown as export sales. As such, for the aforesaid export sales, Central Sales Tax at the rate of 10% was levied, as the assessee could not produce the requisite declaration showing that the same was for export. In the present petition, there is no dispute with regard to levy of such Central Sales Tax at the rate of 10%. The dispute is with regard to levy of penalty under Section 72(2) of the Karnataka Value Added Tax Act, 2003 (for short 'the KVAT Act') read with Section 9(2) of the CST Act.

(3.) By the assessment order dated 08.03.2013 passed by the Assessing Officer for the relevant tax period, a penalty of Rs.18,35,853/- was imposed, which was later rectified by order dated 12.03.2013 and enhanced to Rs.19,41,608/-. The appeal filed by the assessee was dismissed by the Joint Commissioner vide order dated 12.11.2013. The Tribunal also dismissed the second appeal filed by the assessee on 07.08.2014. Aggrieved by the same, this revision petition has been filed by the assessee.