STATE OF KERALA Vs. RAPHEL T. JOSEPH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All these Revision Petitions are filed under S. 63 of the Kerala Value Added Tax Act, 2003 ('K.V.A.T. Act' for short). All these Revision Petitions arise out of a common order passed by the Kerala Value Added Tax Appellate Tribunal, Ernakulam. The Tribunal had confirmed the order of the first appellate authority, passed in favour of the assessee. The State is in revision against the said order.

(2.) The assessee had challenged the revised assessments passed by the Assessing Officer under S. 25 of the K.V.A.T. Act, with respect to different years. The permission granted to the assessee for payment of tax at the compounded rate as provided under S. 8(a)(ii), was found to be illegal and unsustainable, in view of a Division Bench decision of this Court in C.C. Sebastian v. State of Kerala ((2008) 16 KTR 117 (Ker.)) in which this Court had relied upon a judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in T.V. Sundaram Iyengar and Sons v. State of Madras (1975 KLT OnLine 943 (SC) : (1975) 35 STC 24 (SC)), to hold that 'Bus body' built on chassis supplied by the customer is a sale of goods, which will attract payment of tax under Entry 94 of the 1st Schedule of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act (K.G.S.T. Act, for short). The Assessing Authority found that the assessee was not entitled for making payment of tax at the compounded rate, and therefore the assessments already completed were re-opened, by invoking powers vested under S. 25(1) of the K.V.A.T. Act.

(3.) In the first appeals filed by the assessee before the Assistant Commissioner (Appeals), the revised assessments were found to be unsustainable, based on an observation made that the procedure for assessment initiated under S. 25 of the K.V.A.T. Act is not in accordance with law, since the permission granted for payment of tax at the compounded rate was not cancelled by invoking S. 56 of the K.V.A.T. Act.