(1.) THESE two revision petitions are directed against the common order dated June 18, 1993 passed by the Appellate Tribunal in S. T. A. Nos. 943 and 944 of 1991 sustaining a penalty of Rs. 50,000 under section 12b (3) of the Karnataka Sales Tax Act, 1957 (in short, "the State Act" only) and of Rs. 1,00,000 under section 18 (2) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 read with section 12b (3) of the State Act (in short, "the Central Act" only ).
(2.) THE penalties pertain to the assessment year 1986-87. It is not in dispute that the assessee, which is a limited company manufacturing machine tools, had failed to deposit advance tax within the time-limit as provided under section 12b of the State Act. Accordingly, it was subjected to penalties of Rs. 3,58,855 and Rs. 10,14,215 under the State and the Central Acts respectively by two separate orders dated March 29, 1990 passed by the assessing authority. The appeals preferred against the said orders to the Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes proved to be futile. Therefore, second appeals were taken to the Tribunal, which were allowed in part by the impugned common order.
(3.) ON behalf of the petitioner, various circumstances were placed before the Tribunal which had resulted in default in payment of advance tax at the hands of the assessee. As found by the tribunal, some of the circumstances, which led to the said defaults were that the assessee had to sell its machine tool on credit but it could recover the payments after the lapse of more than 90 days. It was also found that the application filed by the assessee for refund with the State government towards generating electricity for their captive consumption owing to continuous power cuts, which had gone up to 85 per cent during the year, was lying pending with the government since November, 1985. Further, as per the final assessments it was found that the petitioner had paid excess tax to the extent of Rs. 1,88,688. 26 under the State Act and to the extent of Rs. 21,027 under the Central Act.