TENUGHAT VIDYUT NIGAM LIMITED Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard learned senior counsel for the petitioner Company, learned counsel for the State and learned counsel for the Central Coalfields Limited (herein after referred to as the 'CCL').

(2.) As the issues involved in all these three writ applications are the same, they have been heard together and are being disposed of by this common Judgement.

(3.) The petitioner Company is engaged in the production, supply and sale of electricity, and for the purpose of production of the electricity at its Thermal Power Plant, it requires coal, which was purchased from the Central Coalfields Limited. As provided under Section 45(1) of the Jharkhand Value Added Tax Act, 2005, (hereinafter referred to as the 'J. V. A. T. Act'), the petitioner Company was required to deduct the prescribed amount, which is 2%, on account of VAT, as tax deducted at source (for short 'TDS'), from the bills raised by the Central Coalfields Limited for supply of coal, and by virtue of Section 45(3) of the J. V. A. T. Act, the same was required to be deposited in the Government Treasury in the prescribed manner. By virtue of Section 45(5) of the J. V. A. T. Act, if such TDS was not made, the Company was liable to pay by way of penalty a sum not exceeding twice the amount of the tax deductible under sub-Section (1).