STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH Vs. MESSRS RAVURU NARASIMLOO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The common question that is presented by these revisions bears upon section 14 of the Andhra Pradesh General Sales Tax Act, 1957 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). This question arises in the following circumstances. The respondent in all the petitions is a dealer in iron and iron scrap at Secunderabad. T.R.C. No. 270 of 1963 relates to the assessment year 1954-55 and it is sufficient for the purposes of this enquiry to state briefly the facts of that case. For that year, the respondent returned a gross turnover of Rs. 90,099-10-3 and a net turnover of Rs. 70,505-6-8, claiming exemptions for the balance on the grounds which need not be set out here. The assessing authority discovered some discrepancies in the account books and therefore re-estimated the turnover at Rs. 1,22,456 on the 13th of July, 1956. Sometime later, on the 3rd September, 1957, there was a surpiise inspection by the Special Commercial Tax Officer, who deals with tax evasions, and he seized an exercise book relating to credit sales. On verification it was found that several entries were not brought into regular account books which amounted to Rs. 37,800 for two and half months. It was also found that four pages were missing. The sales covered by these missing pages were estimated at Rs. 6,400. Thus, they arrived at Rs. 44,200 as the unaccounted for credits.

(2.) On the basis of these suppressed sales, the assessing authority made a best judgment assessment. An appeal was carried by the aggrieved assessee to the Deputy Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, who sustained the assessment on the ground that the relevant statutory provision permitted such an estimate. But on further appeal by the' assessee, the Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal reversed it differing from the department on the ambit and scope of section 14 (4) of the Act.

(3.) As the controversy to be resolved in these cases centres round section 14. of the Act, it is useful to read it here :