AHAMED KABEER Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This revision is filed by the assessee against the order dated 22/10/2012 in T.A (Vat) No.398/2012 of the Kerala Value Added Tax Appellate Tribunal, Ernakulam. The issue relates to the assessment year 2005-2006.

(2.) The petitioner is a dealer in coconut and arecanut. According to him, during the period 2005-2006, he purchased arecanut from unregistered dealers under Section 6(2) of the Kerala Value Added Tax Act, (hereinafter referred to as KVAT Act). Produce was sent to agents outside the State of Kerala for consignment sales under Section 6A of the Central Sales Tax Act. During the return period August 2005 and December 2005, when the arecanuts were being transported from Kerala to Karnataka two offences were detected and security deposits were collected from the petitioner under Section 47(2) of the KVAT Act. The security deposits were subsequently converted to penalty under Section 47(6) of the Act. Annexures A and B are the penalty orders. According to the petitioner, since he has no local sales of arecanut within the State he has no obligation to pay tax under the KVAT Act.

(3.) Since penalty was imposed on him, his monthly returns for October 2005 to March 2006 were rejected and the assessing officer resorted to best judgment assessments under Section 24 of the KVAT Act for the said months. The assessing officer added two times of purchase turn over of arecanuts as taxable under Section 6(2) and two times of the value of inter State stock transfer as turn over under Section 6(1) of the KVAT Act. Annexure C is the common assessment order. According to the petitioner, the return under the CST Act for the year 2005-06 was accepted by the Assessing Authority and Annexure D is the said assessment order. Challenging the orders passed by the Assessing Officer under the KVAT Act, the petitioner filed appeal before the Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) and the order was modified by reducing the addition to equal of the purchase turnover under Section 6(2) of the KVAT Act and the value of stock transfer for the purpose of assessment under Section 6(1) of the KVAT Act, 2003. Assessee was allowed special rebate on the turn over added under Section 6(2) of the KVAT Act.