ASIAN GRANITO INDIA LTD Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has challenged a communication/order dated 19.06.2017 by which, Commercial Tax Officer, Prantij rejected the petitioner's request for refund of a sum of Rs. 15 lacs on the ground that the Amnesty Scheme 2016 does not envisage granting of any such refund.

(2.) Brief facts are as under: The petitioner is an assessee engaged in manufacture and sale of goods. For the year 2010-11, the Assessing Officer passed an order of assessment on 01.06.2015 under which, he raised a principal tax demand of Rs. 72,84,642/- and interest demand of Rs. 51.34 lacs (rounded off). The petitioner filed appeal against the said order of assessment on 27.06.2015. According to the petitioner, and to which no dispute is raised by the respondents, as is the practice, the Appellate authority orally directed the petitioner to deposit a sum of Rs. 15 lacs by way of pre-deposit pending such appeal. The petitioner complied with such oral direction and deposited a sum of Rs. 15 lacs on 08.07.2015 towards pre-deposit.

(3.) On 01.08.2016, the Government of Gujarat published an amnesty scheme called the Amnesty Scheme of 2016 (hereinafter to be called as "the said Scheme"). We would refer to various terms of the scheme later. At this stage, we may record that the scheme was introduced to reduce pending litigation in view of the introduction of the GST regime and enabled the assessee at various stages of pendency of the proceedings to pay reduced tax in order to resolve all disputes with the department. The last date of the validity of the scheme initially was 31.12.2016 which was later on extended to 31.03.2017.