T.V. MURALI Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The revision petitioner is the assessee, who has raised questions of law against the orders of the Tribunal. The only issue is with respect to the entitlement of the assessee to claim compounding under Section 8(a)(i) of the Kerala Value Added Tax Act, 2003 [for brevity "KVAT Act"] at the rate of 3%. The Assessing Officer, on verification of the audited statement of the assessee, found that despite seeking cancellation of the Central Sales Tax registration, the assessee had used 'C' Forms for purchases inter-State, which makes the assessee eligible only for compounding under Section 8(a)(ii) at the rate of 8%. The first appellate authority affirmed the action of the Assessing Officer, which was challenged before the Tribunal; without success.

(2.) The questions of law framed are the following:

(3.) The assessment year is 2008-09. The order of the Assessing Officer reveals that the assessee had filed an application dated 30-04-2008 requesting to cancel the CST registration with effect from 01-04-2008. It was also declared that no purchases were made during February, 2008 and March, 2008 and that the entire materials purchased inter-State based on the CST registration during the earlier financial year have been utilized for construction work. However, verification of Form 13 and Form 13A statements revealed inter-State purchases using 'C' Form declarations, even after the application for cancellation. The dealer is said to have surrendered the unused 'C' Forms only in January, 2010. The counterfoils revealed that the dealer had effected inter-State purchases between the period 01-04-2008 to 30-08-2008 using two 'C' Forms, the details of which are extracted in the assessment order itself. The purchases made comes to an amount of more than Rs. 47,50,000/-.