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TMI Blog2009 (4) TMI 433X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... dvocate (Sathish, Advocate, with him) for the respondents. Shabu Sreedharan, P.N. Noor Muhamed and Rameshwar Prasad Goyal, Advocates, for the petitioner. -------------------------------------------------- ORDER Leave granted. The appellant, M/s. Varkisons Engineers, is a partnership firm having its crushing unit at Kadiyiruppu, Kolenchery, Ernakulam district. It is a registered dealer under the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963 (for short, "the KGST Act") as well as the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956. In lieu of payment of tax under section 5(1) of the KGST Act for the assessment year 2001-02, the appellant opted to pay turnover tax under section 7 which provides for payment of tax at the compounded rate. In short, the appellant opted for an alternate method of taxation provided for by section 7 of the KGST Act. To complete the chronology of events, it may be stated that the appellant had applied for permission for payment of tax under section 7 read with rule 30 of the Kerala General Sales Tax Rules, 1963. That application was made on April 9, 2001 for the financial year commencing from April 1, 2001 to March 31, 2002. Vide order dated April 9, 2001, t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , or creates a new obligation and imposes a new duty or attaches a new disability, in respect of transactions or considerations already passed. Accordingly, we hold that the amendment made in clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 7 of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act is applicable for the assessment year 2001-02." The main argument of the dealer before us was that the alternate method of taxation is very similar to the taxation under the Income-tax Act. The argument of the dealer was that once the method of taxation proceeds on the basis that unit of assessment was the full assessment year commencing from 1st April, then, the law prevalent on the first day of the assessment year should prevail; that, there cannot be bifurcation of the assessment year, particularly in the absence of the amendment to the machinery provision in the Act; that, the Division Bench was required to consider in that context whether in the absence of machinery of computation, it was open to levy the tax at a different rate in the middle of the assessment year, that is, from July 23, 2001. On the other hand, Mr. Iyer, learned senior counsel, submitted that it is always open to the Legislature to amen ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Income-tax Officer included the difference between the original cost and the written down value of the ship in the total income of the assessee for the assessment year 1946-47. The Tribunal upheld that decision and referred the question, whether the sum representing the difference between the original cost and the written down value was properly included in the assessee's total income computed for the assessment year 1946-47. It was argued that the fourth proviso to section 10(2)(vii) of the Income-tax Act (inserted by the Amendment Act of 1946 with effect from May 4, 1946) under which the inclusion of the amount was justified by the Department, had no application to the case. (10) The learned judges held that as it was the Finance Act of 1946 that imposed the tax for the assessment year 1946-47, the total income had to be computed in accordance with the provisions of the Income-tax Act as on April 1, 1946; that as the amendments made by the Amendment Act of 1946 with effect from May 4, 1946 were not retrospective, they could not be taken into consideration merely because the assessee was assessed after that date; and that the assessee was not liable to pay tax on the sum because ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 'It will be observed that we are here concerned with two datum lines: (1) the April 1, 1940, when the Act came into force, and (2) the April 1, 1939, which is the date mentioned in the amended proviso. The first question to be answered is whether these dates are to apply to the accounting year or the year of assessment. They must be held to apply to the assessment year, because in income-tax matters the law to be applied is the law in force in the assessment year unless otherwise stated or implied. The first datum line, therefore, affected only the assessment year of 1940-41, because the amendment did not come into force till April 1, 1940. That means that the old law applied to every assessment year up to and including the assessment year 1939-40.' This decision is authority for the proposition that though the subject of the charge is the income of the previous year, the law to be applied is that in force in the assessment year, unless otherwise stated or implied. The facts of the said decision are different and distinguishable and the High Court was clearly in error in applying that decision to the facts of the present case. (14) The Surcharge Act having come into for ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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