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TMI Blog2024 (9) TMI 1316X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... .06.2014 to 31.12.2015 before 30.09.2018; produce documents of movement of goods in the form of lorry receipts/railway receipts and CST waybills; production of proof of exit of the goods from the State Andhra Pradesh by producing proof of exit from the last notified check post in the State or by production of ledger accounts or book entries relating to payment of charges for transporting goods to other States. A cutoff date is prescribed only in relation to payment of tax under the CST, Act and for completion of the assessment for the period from 01.06.2014 to 31.12.2015. There is no cutoff date prescribed for production of the other documents mentioned above. In the circumstances, the contention of the learned Government Pleader for Commercial Tax, that the documents required for grant of waiver should be produced before the cutoff date cannot be accepted. As far as the non-production of documents is concerned, the said non-production would be a question of fact, which would have to be gone into by the assessing authorities after considering whether the documents produced by the petitioners meet the terms and conditions set out in the memos. It would be inequitable, to grant relie ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... payment of tax at the rate of 2%, even in cases where necessary C-Forms was not produced before the assessing officers. The Government, had initially issued a Memo.No.26197/CT-II(1)/2013, dated 10.05.2016. The relevant paragraph No.2 of the said memo reads as follows:- Paragraph No.2:-Government, after careful consideration of the request and in pursuance of the resolution of the Council of Ministers in the reference 4th cited, hereby order to waive the tax payable under CST Act over and above 2% in the absence of C-Forms till 31.05.2014, only for those Rice Millers and dealers in Pulses Dalls, who remit the tax completely as per the provisions of the CST Act for the period from 01.06.2014 to 31.12.2015 before 30.06.2016 after getting their assessments completed expeditiously. The waiver shall be subject to production of Lorry Receipts/Railway Receipts, CST way bills, proof of exit through the last notified check-post in Andhra Pradesh and proof of receipt of sale consideration from the buyers to prove that the goods were sold to the dealers in other states in the course of inter-state trade. The waiver is not applicable to those Rice Millers and dealers in Pulses Dalls who have d ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... these tax officers for waiver. The applications for such waiver appear have to be made in the year-2019 onwards. The tax authorities had issued endorsements, which are impugned in the present set of Writ Petitions, rejecting these applications for waiver. The said orders of rejection were passed essentially on the following grounds:- i. The assessments for the relevant period had already been completed more than four years prior to the date of endorsement and as such, the tax authority is not in a position to re-assess the tax as Rules 14(A) subrules 8, 9 15 of the Central Sales Tax (Andhra Pradesh) Rules, 1957 [for the short the CSTAP Rules ] do not permit a re-assessment beyond four years. ii. The petitioners would be eligible for waiver of tax only if all the necessary documentary evidence stipulated under the aforesaid memos were furnished before the last cutoff date on 30.09.2018, whereas the petitioners have submitted their documents from the year 2019 onwards, along with their applications for waiver and as such, the documents cannot be looked into by the taxing authorities and consequently, no waiver can be granted. iii. In some of the cases, the taxing authorities also to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... enior Counsel appearing on behalf of Sri Srinivasa Rao Kudapudi, learned counsel for the petitioners contends that the grounds relied upon by the taxing authorities for rejection of waiver are not tenable nor applicable to the present set of cases. 11. The learned Senior Counsel would draw the attention of this Court to the Rule-14(A) sub-rules (8),(9) (15) of the CSTAP Rules. He contends that under Rule-14(A) sub-rule(8), the assessing authority, could re-assesses the tax due from a dealer, where such assessing authority finds that either the whole or part of the turnover of the business of the dealer has escaped assessment or has been under assessed; Rule-14(A) sub-rule (9) provides for re-assessment where a rate of tax, which is lower than the actual rate, has been applied during assessment; Rule-14(A) sub-rule (15) stipulates the period of re-assessment under the Rule-14(A) sub-rules (8) (9). 12. The learned Senior Counsel would contend that the said rules permit an assessing authority to undertake re-assessment only where there is prejudice to the revenue of the State and such re-assessment is not permissible, under these provisions, where the dealer has a complaint against ei ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s required under the impugned memos had been completed before the cutoff date set out under these memos. In the light of this fact, the questions that remain, before this Court, are whether the petitioners can file their documents for obtaining waiver of tax, at a later date, and whether such waiver of tax can be given without any further assessment/re-assessment/appellate order being passed by the concerned taxing authorities. 18. In the normal course, dealers registered under the CST Act would be entitled to pay tax at the concessional rate of 2% only upon production of C-Forms. However, the memos issued by the Government, mentioned above, grant waiver of tax and permit the petitioners to pay tax at the concessional rate of 2%, even if such C forms are not submitted, subject to the said dealers fulfilling the conditions set out in the memos mentioned above. 19. The conditions for grant of such waiver are contained in the memo dated 27.09.2016 which has been extracted above. A perusal of the terms and conditions, in this memo, make it clear that the waiver of tax given under the memos, is applicable to those dealers who remit their tax completely as per the provisions of the CST, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tion of documents is concerned, the said non-production would be a question of fact, which would have to be gone into by the assessing authorities after considering whether the documents produced by the petitioners meet the terms and conditions set out in the memos. 24. The learned Government Pleader for Commercial Tax further contends that the applications are hit by laches as they are being filed with delay and without any explanation for such delay. He would contend that most of these applications were filed only in the year 2023 and as such, the petitioners cannot claim a vested right for wavier at any point of time even if the applications are filed three years after the issuance of the memos. 25. It appears that in quite a few cases the applications were filed in the year 2019 and thereafter, these requests were renewed in the year 2023. In such circumstances, it would be inequitable, to grant relief to those dealers who approached in the year 2019 while denying such relief to the dealers who approached later. In any event, the applications are only for the purposes of ascertaining the eligibility of the dealers/petitioners for grant of waiver. 26. In the circumstances, these ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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