(1.) This petition has been filed under section 22 (2) of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948 (hereinafter referred to as "the State Act") read with section 9 (2) of the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 (hereinafter referred to as "the Central Act") for issuance of a mandamus directing the Sales Tax Tribunal, Punjab (hereinafter referred to as "the Tribunal") to refer the following questions of law to this Court for its opinion :
(2.) Briefly stated the facts are : Petitioner who is engaged in the business of resale of khal/oil, etc. , is a registered dealer under the sales tax laws. Assessment for the year 1980-81 was framed on June 8, 1982. Inter-State sales of cotton-seed oil were taxed at the rate of 1 per cent. against "c" forms. Revisional authority took action under section 9 (2) of the Central Act read with section 21 (1) of the State Act in the light of the Notification No. S. O. 1/c. A. 74/56/s. 8/79 dated January 11, 1979 and treated the cotton-seed oil as non-edible and created an additional demand of Rs. 11,503 by levying tax at the rate of 4 per cent. instead of 1 per cent. on the inter-State sale of cotton-seed oil. First appeal as well as the second appeal before the Tribunal were dismissed.
(3.) Mr. D. S. Brar, Advocate, appearing for the petitioner-dealer relying upon J. K. Synthetics Ltd. v. Commercial Taxes Officer [1994] 94 STC 422, a judgment of the Supreme Court and Oswal Spinning and Weaving Mills Ltd. v. State of Punjab [1996] 103 STC 491 of this Court, contended that the interest would be leviable from the date the additional demand was created by the revisional authority and not from the date of filing of the return. Second contention raised by the counsel for the petitioner-dealer is that in view of the single Bench judgment of this Court in Milkhi Ram Oil and Dall Mills v. State of Punjab [1992] 84 STC 206, cotton-seed oil is edible oil and sales tax leviable would be at the rate of 1 per cent. Both the submissions were not accepted by the Tribunal.