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TMI Blog1964 (1) TMI 34X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... required by rule 15 of the Madhya Pradesh General Sales Tax Rules, 1959 (hereinafter referred to as the Rules). In due course, assessment orders for those quarters were made and the balance of tax payable by them after giving credit for the amount paid as shown in the challans was determined by the Sales Tax Officer. Thereafter, when accounts of sales tax amounts deposited in the Sales Tax Officer's register and the amounts as shown deposited in the treasury accounts were verified, it was discovered by the Sales Tax Officer that the amounts shown as deposited in some of the challans filed by the petitioners had not actually been deposited in the treasury and that the challans had been fabricated. In the case of the petitioner-firm Harpaldas Jairamdas in Miscellaneous Petition No. 324 of 1963, the Sales Tax Officer found that one challan bearing No. P. 279, dated 27th November, 1959, filed by it along with the return for the quarter ending 31st October, 1959, showed a payment of Rs. 1,994 into the treasury, but the actual payment made was only of Rs. 94 under challan No. 3, dated 27th November, 1959. The Sales Tax Officer, therefore, issued a notice under section 22(4)(a) to the pe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... payment of that amount. 5.. The third petitioner Hukumchand in Miscellaneous Petition No. 323 of 1963 also received two notices dated 19th August, 1963, and 31st August, 1963, telling him with reference to certain challans filed by him with his returns that the amount of tax as shown in those challans had not been deposited in the treasury and calling upon him to pay the difference between the amounts stated in those challans and the amounts actually credited in the treasury under certain challans. In his reply to these notices, Hukumchand said that he had paid the full amount as shown in the challans filed by him along with his returns and at the time of the making of the assessment orders for the relevant periods it was accepted by the Sales Tax Officer that the amounts shown as paid in the challans filed with the returns had been deposited in the treasury. 6.. The petitioners have raised several grounds challenging the validity of the notices issued to them; but the burden of all of them is that they having filed with their returns treasury challans showing payment of tax due from them according to the returns, and those payments having been accepted by the Sales Tax Officer ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d before us suppllementary affidavits denying the allegations of fraud made against them in the returns filed on behalf of the opponents. They have said that they never forged or interpolated any challans and have paid into the treasury the full amounts as shown in the challans filed by them; and that some clerks " in the office of Sales Tax Department and in the treasury and in the State Bank have done away with certain documents. " 8.. In our judgment, these petitions cannot be sustained. From what has been stated above it is plain that the controversy in these petitions centres round the question of the legality of proceedings initiated against the petitioners for the recovery of a part of the amount of sales tax to which they have been assessed. The question of the legality of the assessments made against the petitioners is not in issue in these proceedings. In order to see whether the argument put forward on behalf of the petitioners assailing the validity of the notices issued to them is tenable, it is first necessary to refer to the relevant provisions of the Act and of the Rules made thereunder. The first material provision is section 17(1) which is as follows: " Every su ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... l amount of tax due from the assessee. 10.. The payment and recovery of tax and other dues under the Act is the subject-matter of section 22, the relevant portions of which are as follows: "22. Payment and recovery of tax and other dues under the Act.- (1) The tax payable for each year shall be paid in the manner hereinafter provided at such intervals as may be prescribed. (2) Before any registered dealer furnishes any return required by sub-section (1) of section 17, he shall pay into a Government treasury in the prescribed manner the full amount of tax due from him under this Act according to such return. (3) If a revised return submitted by a registered dealer in accordance with sub-section (2) of section 17 shows a greater amount of tax to be due than was shown in the original return, he shall pay the difference into a Government treasury. (3-A) * * * (4) The amount of tax- (a) due where the returns were furnished without full payment of tax, or (b) assessed under sub-sections (1), (3) and (4) of section 18, less the sum, if any, already paid by the dealer in respect of the said year together with the penalty, if any, directed to be paid under sub-section (3) of secti ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , and also was required by the same rule to file along with his return a treasury receipted challan in form VI, and as according to rule 36 an order of assessment under section 18 had to be in form XVIII giving the details of the tax amount already paid by the assessee, and stating the total balance of the tax amount due from him, after deducting the amount of tax paid from the amount of net tax found payable by him, therefore, the details given in the assessment order with regard to tax amount paid by an assessee according to the challans filed by him along with his returns were an integral part of the assessment order; that after the making of an assessment order any alteration in the figure of the amount of tax as shown paid in the challans with the return resulted in a modification or rectification of assessment; and that consequently if after the passing of an assessment order the Sales Tax Officer found that the tax amount as shown paid in the challans filed with the return and entered in the assessment order was not actually paid, he could not issue a notice under section 22(4) for the payment of the short-fall between the tax amount actually paid into the treasury and that ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f that tax amount into the treasury do not come into the picture at all. The amount of tax paid by the assessee into the treasury before filing his return has a bearing only on the question of the actual amount payable by him and recoverable from him after a valid order assessing him to tax has been made under section 18. The amount actually paid by him into the treasury before the filing of the return is nothing but the recovered amount-may be wholly or partly -of the tax to which he has been held liable under a valid assessment order made under section 18. This advance amount paid by the assessee into the treasury is not an integral part of the order assessing him to tax. What is integral is the total amount of tax which he has been held liable to pay after the computation of the taxable turnover and the determination of the tax amount on it. The fact that in an assessment order drawn up according to the prescribed form under rule 36 details of tax already paid by the assessee before the filing of the return have to be given and the balance of tax amount due from him after giving credit for these payments has to be stated cannot make a decision with regard to the amount of tax de ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... eturns furnished by a registered dealer, he can assess the dealer on the basis of the returns. But as the fact of payment of tax amount in the treasury before the filing of the return does not enter into the computation of the taxable turnover and the determination of the tax amount payable under the Act with reference to that turnover, the "satisfaction" of the Commissioner mentioned in section 18(1) can only be with regard to his satisfaction about the correctness and completeness of the turnover entered in the return. At the stage of the filing of a return with the challan indicating the payment of certain amount into the treasury, there can be no question of embarking upon any enquiry into the question whether certain payment shown in the challan purporting to bear the seal and signature of the Treasury Officer was or was not actually paid into the treasury. When a challan in the prescribed form bearing the seal of the treasury and the signature of the Treasury Officer is filed before the Sales Tax Officer, he has to treat it is prima facie genuine. He cannot start with a suspicion. Indeed, it is impossible for the Sales Tax Officer to know whether the payment shown in the chal ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of mistakes in the assessment which could be done only in conformity with section 45 of the Act and that the Sales Tax Officer had not complied with the provisions of that section. This ground has not been taken in any of the petitions. Be that as it may, this contention is not sound. Even if it be taken that a mistake with regard to credit of tax amount into the treasury is a mistake in the record of assessment proceedings, no notice for the rectification of the mistake was necessary to the petitioners under the proviso to section 45 inasmuch as the rectification did not have the effect of enhancing the tax amount to which the petitioners were assessed, or of reducing the amount of any refund given by the assessment orders. As we have endeavoured to point out earlier, the amount of tax to which the petitioners have been assessed on the basis of their taxable turnover under the assessment orders remains the same, and the notice is issued to them only for the purpose of recovering part of the tax amount to which they have been assessed. 17.. Under the substantive part of section 45(1), the Commissioner can make the rectification with regard to payment of tax amount at any time with ..... 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