GAMMON INDIA LTD. Vs. STATE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The essence of the suomoturevisional power vested in the Deputy Commissioner of Taxes, Zone-B (hereinafter alluded to as 'DCT') under section 36 of the erstwhile Assam General Sales Tax Act, 1993 ( in short "Act") is the bone of contention in the present proceeding. Challenge to such power is made vis- -vis the revisional order dated 10.7.2011 and notice of demand dated 18.07.2011 of the DCT as well as the order of the Assam Board of Revenue dated 19.05.2014 affirming the stand of the DCT, save and except in respect of the direction made to the Assessing Authority for revising the assessment order. The Board held that the assessment made be deemed to be the assessment of the Revisional Authority as a part of his revisional order.

(2.) Facts noticed in the following paragraphs are to be essentially traversed, though somewhat arduous. Relevant to the case is that the petitioner company had submitted its return of turnover for the assessment year 2004-05 before the Assessing Authority, i.e. the Assistant Commissioner of Taxes, Tezpur along with the audited statement of accounts and the audit report for assessment under section 17(4) of the Act. Pursuant to the order of assessment dated 05.07.2007 the Assessing Authority issued Notice dated 26.5.09 directing the petitioner company to submit explanation as the assessment, upon scrutiny, was found to be erroneous and required rectification under Section 37 of the Act, in that, the percentum of deduction allowed in the assessment was more than 25%, as allowable under section 8(3)(iv)(b) of the Act. The proposed rectification was confined to the deductions allowed on account of labour and other changes from the works contract. The petitioner company submitted explanation with prayer to drop the proceedings for rectification. It would be useful to reproduce the said Notice dated 26.05.2009, which is as under:

(3.) For reasons not categorically specified, the matter did not proceed and no action whatsoever was taken on the Notice dated 26.05.2009. Subsequently, on 08.07.2010 a letter was issued by the higher authority i.e. the DCT directing the petitioner company to produce the books of accounts like labour payment documents, contract document, payments received, goods supplied cash book, ledger etc. relating to different works contract at various places in Assam for the period ending 2004-05, fixing 19.07.2010 as the date of hearing. The petitioner company made reply on 16.07.2010 indicating that assessment for the year 2004-05 had since stood completed and the relevant data and documents had been produced before the Assessing Authority, whereupon the assessment order was issued after due verification. Further, the petitioner company was faced with extreme difficulty to retrieve relevant documents for the purpose of re-verification. Request was made to apprise the reason requiring it to produce the books of accounts once again for the subject period. The matter proceeded with the DCT issuing the letter dated 23.07.2010 citing that the grounds urged by the petitioner company did not deserve consideration when a tax authority was exercising his statutory powers for safeguarding the interest of revenue of the State. The plea taken by the petitioner company that assessment proceeding had since stood completed, the same was held to be irrelevant as the present action was for re-verification of the books of accounts as per law. As regards the plea that the books of accounts had been shifted to Mumbai, the DCT held that the petitioner company was obliged to make necessary arrangement for producing the same before the tax authority of Assam as and when made expedient for the purpose of safeguarding revenue. The DCT directed production of the books of accounts, as sought for earlier, fixing 02.08.2010. The petitioner company again replied by its letter dated 30.7.10 that the relevant data/documents called for were six years old and retrieving the same from various godowns at the Head Office and from different sites was a time consuming affair. Request was made for grant of 4 (four) weeks time enabling compilation of the data/documents for the verification exercise. This request was acceded to vide DCT's letter dated 02.08.2010, fixing 02.09.2010 as the next date for production of the books of account. It was also observed that the petitioner company had earlier availed a month's time for doing the same and, therefore, no further extension would be entertained. The exchange of letters came to a halt with the letter dated 9.10.10 of the petitioner company whereby the DCT was informed that it had already attended two hearing along with relevant documents. However, it was stated, that due to unavoidable circumstances it would not be able to attend the next hearing on 11.10. Request was made for extension of time by another month.