Agrimas Chemicals Ltd. vs State of Haryana and Others

Ritu Bahri, J.

C.M. No. 643-CII of 2012

There is a delay of 21 days in filing the present appeal. For the reasons stated in the application, the delay of 21 days in filing the appeal is condoned.

C.M. disposed of.

VATAP No. 2 of 2012

This appeal u/s 36 of the Haryana Value Added Tax Act, 2003 is against the order dated March 25, 2011 in Appeal No. 396 passed by the Haryana Tax Tribunal (annexure A3), order dated July 2, 2010 passed by the Joint Excise and Taxation Commissioner (Appeals), Rohtak (annexure A2) and order dated February 19, 2010 passed by the Assessing Authority (annexure A1).

The dealer has claimed that the following question of law has arisen:

Whether the appellant can produce form F at any stage for seeking the benefit of branch transfers outside State under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956?

In this appeal, the appellant is challenging the assessment order which is passed under the Central Sales Tax Act by raising tax demand of Rs. 15,79,459 vide order dated February 19, 2010 (annexure A1). While making this assessment the dealer had claimed branch transfers outside State of Rs. 72,61,876.70. In the absence of form F this order was treated as sale without C forms and was taxed at 12.5 percent.

The orders passed by the Assessing Authority have been affirmed by the Joint Excise and Taxation Commissioner (Appeals), Rohtak, vide order dated July 2, 2010 (annexure A2) and by the Haryana Tax Tribunal vide order dated March 25, 2011 (annexure A3).

Counsel for the appellant has referred F forms annexure A1 (colly) amounting to Rs. 72,61,876.70 which are available with the appellant for seeking benefit of deductions on account of branch transfers outside State.

A Division Bench of this court in Deepak Radios Pvt. Ltd. Vs. Union Territory of Chandigarh and Another, has an occasion to consider the prayer made by an assessee-dealer where he could not produce the requisite forms C and D at the time of assessment. Following the law laid down by this court in Prestolite of India Limited Vs. The State of Haryana and Others, , the Division Bench of this court allowed the appeal and give a direction to the assessing authority to assess the genuineness of the documents/forms in question and pass an appropriate order. It was made clear that if the documents were found to be fabricated then the Assessing Authority could saddle the dealer-assessee with penalty as per provision of the Act. Deepak Radios Pvt. Ltd. Vs. Union Territory of Chandigarh and Another, is a case dealing with the Punjab Value Added Tax Act.

Applying the ratio of the above judgment to the facts of the present case, as the benefit of form F has been declined to the assessee for the reason that the same were not produced during the course of assessment, the order dated March 25, 2011 in Appeal No. 396 passed by the Haryana Tax Tribunal (annexure A3), order dated July 2, 2010 passed by the Joint Excise and Taxation Commissioner (Appeals), Rohtak (annexure A2) and order dated February 19, 2010 passed by the assessing authority (annexure A1) are set aside. The matter is remanded back to the Assessing Authority with liberty to the dealer to produce form F (annexure A4) (Colly) amounting to Rs. 72,61,876.70. The Assessing Authority shall examine the documents and if they are found to be genuine then grant the benefit of branch transfers. It is, however, made clear that if the documents produced before the Assessing Authority are found to be fabricated, the dealer-assessee shall be saddled with penalty as per provisions of the Haryana Value Added Tax Act. The appeal is disposed of in the above terms.