9911796707
TMI Blog2007 (2) TMI 586X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a private limited company engaged in the business of manufacture of acrylic yarn made from the acrylic fibre, purchased from another unit, which is an exempted unit under the provisions of section 30A of the Punjab General Sales Tax Act, 1948 (for short, "the 1948 Act"). The petitioner is also an exempted unit having been granted exemption certificate No. 314 dated May 2, 2001 for an amount of Rs. 9,69,97,717 with validity from September 15, 2000 to September 14, 2007. While framing the assessment for the year 2005-06, keeping in view the judgment of this court in Civil Writ Petition No. 2272 of 2006 (Perfect Synthetics v. State of Punjab) decided on July 4, 2006, the Assessing Authority, vide order dated January 15, 2007, determi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... here any other proceeding under this Act is pending, and the officer competent to grant such refund is of the opinion that the grant of the refund is likely to adversely affect the Revenue, such officer may, with the previous approval of the Commissioner, withhold the refund till such time, as may be determined.' In the present case the refund has arisen for the reason that deduction under rule 29(xii) of the Punjab General Sales Tax Rules, 1949 has been allowed in respect of goods purchased from exempted units for use of manufacture. This has been done complying with the order of the honourable Punjab and Haryana High Court in C.W.P. No. 2272 of 2006 in the case of Perfect Synthetics. The department has filed special leave petition be ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e have heard Shri Sandeep Goyal, learned counsel for the petitioner and Ms. Urvashi Dhugga, learned Assistant Advocate-General, Punjab, for the respondents. Reiterating the submissions made in the writ petition, learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that once the Assessing Authority has determined an amount of Rs. 1,57,93,514 being refundable to the petitioner, it is entitled to refund thereof. It is further submitted that the Assessing Authority had rightly put a condition while ordering the refund and the petitioner would be bound by that. The petitioner having paid the amount as per the interpretation of law at the relevant time, under protest, is entitled to the refund thereof, once it is found to be refundable to the petitioner ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rder of assessment, is illegal, arbitrary and deserves to be struck down. Once it is not disputed that the amount has been determined as being refundable to the petitioner, the only escape route with the respondents to deny the refund was to exercise the powers under section 41Reported at [2007] 6 VST 280. of the VAT Act. For the exercise thereof, certain pre-requisites are required to be satisfied. According to the provision the order of refund is either subjectmatter of appeal or pending consideration in any other proceedings under the 1948 Act. If this situation is existing, the officer competent to grant refund has to form an opinion that the grant of refund is likely to adversely affect the recovery. It is only then the refund due to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ion for entertainment of an appeal, this court in Civil Writ Petition No. 19172 of 2006 (Ratti Woollen Mills v. State of Punjab) decided on February 1, 2007Reported at [2007] 9 VST 105.while rejecting the plea of the State regarding withholding of the tax, has directed the respondents therein to refund the amount along with statutory interest.
In view of our above discussions, the writ petition is allowed. Order dated January 17, 2007, annexure R-3, is set aside. The respondents are directed to refund the amount of Rs. 1,57,93,514 along with statutory interest within a period of three months from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order.
The writ petition is disposed of in above terms with no order as to costs. X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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