M/S Vishal Udyog vs. The State Of Assam And 4 Ors

Held

The Court held that the assessment orders for the assessment years 2012-13 and 2013-14 were liable to be set aside. The Court noted that while the period stipulated under Section 39 of the Assam Value Added Tax Act, 2003, ended on 31.03.2018 and 31.03.2019 respectively, the demand notices were issued in July and August 2019. Crucially, there was no explanation provided by the revenue for this delay of over two years. Citing the Supreme Court's decision in M. Ramakishtaiah and Company, the Court presumed that the orders were not made on the dates they purported to have been made (21.12.2017) but could have been made after the expiry of the prescribed period. Therefore, the assessment orders for the period 2012-13 and 2013-14 were set aside. Consequently, all impugned assessment orders and demand notices were quashed. The Court did not specifically address the issue of Input Tax Credit not being allowed for the assessment year 2013-14 as a separate point of contention, but the setting aside of the assessment orders would implicitly resolve this.

Facts

The petitioner, M/s Vishal Udyog, a proprietorship concern registered under the Assam Value Added Tax Act, 2003, filed writ petitions challenging assessment orders and demand notices issued by the Superintendent of Taxes, Unit-C, Guwahati. For the financial year 2013-2014, after a scrutiny assessment, the petitioner paid Rs. 2,286/-. Subsequently, a notice under Section 36 of the Act was issued for audit assessment for periods 2012-13 to 2014-15. The petitioner appeared and produced documents. Later, a demand notice dated 27.12.2018 (issued on 01.07.2019) demanded Rs. 22,599/- for the assessment year 2013-14, comprising balance tax of Rs. 17,599/- and penalty of Rs. 5,000/-. The petitioner applied for a certified copy of the assessment order dated 21.12.2017, which was received on 20.09.2021. The assessment order for 2013-14 did not allow Input Tax Credit. A similar issue arose for the financial year 2014-15, where an excess tax of Rs. 25/- was paid, along with interest of Rs. 670/- and penalty of Rs. 2,000/-, totaling Rs. 2,670/-, which was paid on 08.06.2016.

Key Issues

1. Whether the assessment orders for the assessment years 2012-13 and 2013-14 are liable to be set aside on the ground that they were passed after the expiry of the prescribed period under Section 39 of the Assam Value Added Tax Act, 2003, and were issued with undue delay? Petitioner's arguments: The petitioner contended that the demand notices for the assessment years 2012-13 and 2013-14 were issued in July and August 2019, significantly after the period stipulated under Section 39 of the Act had ended (31.03.2018 for 2012-13 and 31.03.2019 for 2013-14). They argued that there was no explanation for this delay, and relying on Supreme Court judgments, such delayed orders should be presumed to have been made after the expiry of the prescribed period and thus be bad. The petitioner also argued that the assessment order for 2013-14 did not allow Input Tax Credit. Revenue's arguments: The judgment does not record any specific arguments made by the revenue or state in response to the delay in issuing the notices or the non-allowance of Input Tax Credit.