Agartala, Mar 19, 2023, TRIPURA TIMES Desk

Agartala Mar 19: In an exemplary decision, the High Court of Tripura comprising Acting Chief Justice T. Amarnath Goud and Justice Arindam Lodh ordered the State Tax authority to be more vigilant and tax-friendly as well as imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 on the Commissioner of taxes which will be recovered from his salary.

The Court observed that the orders passed by the tax authorities in an arbitrary manner, which was driving taxpayers to file appeals by depositing 50% of the disputed taxes. The Court also ruled that a taxpayer or a dealer cannot be made to suffer as a result of the tax authority's lackadaisical approach and that the officers must be more vigilant and tax-friendly.
The petitioner/assessee Megha Technical filed their returns under the TVAT Act of 2004. It was recorded that the petitioner had paid Rs 33,32,202 as an excess amount for the assessment year 2016-2017, and a part of the same was adjusted against the tax liability of the year 2017-2018. After adjustment of the amount of the tax refundable for the assessment year 2016-2017, the total amount refundable to the petitioner was Rs 30,25,031.
The petitioner prayed for a refund of the excess amount paid, but suddenly he received a notice which stated that the petitioner had made an excess payment of tax to the tune of Rs 30,25,031. The petitioner submitted his reply dated June 11, 2020, and on receipt of the same, the respondent issued the impugned notice dated May 21, 2020, upon the petitioner.
On receipt of the said notice dated May 21, 2020, the petitioner submitted its reply, in which he seeks an amount of Rs 30,25,031 as excess tax paid for the assessment year 2017-18. On December 10, 2020, the respondent issued an order without addressing the petitioner's grievance or giving the petitioner any opportunity to be heard personally. The respondent observed that the petitioner made excess payments during 2016-2017 and there was no payment of tax during 2017-18 (up to June 2017), but it has been clearly reflected in the assessment order dated May 3, 2019.
The respondent remanded the case to the Superintendent of Taxes, Charge-V, Agartala, for a fresh assessment and year-by-year recording of tax payments, liabilities, and so on, and for passing a detailed and reasoned order within the next three months after giving the dealer a reasonable opportunity to be heard.
The department contended that there was no jurisdictional error in completing the assessment, and, thus, the order dated May 3, 2019, passed by the Commissioner of Taxes is absolutely illegal.
However, after a prolonged hearing, the Division Bench set aside the Commissioner of Taxes 'suo moto'  Revisional order and held that there was no jurisdictional error in the Assessing Authority's assessment and that the Revisional Authority, namely the Commissioner of Taxes, went beyond the provisions of the Act in issuing the notice and the order. The Court while not appreciating the action of the authority while allowing the writ application imposed a cost of Rs 25000/-from the Commissioner of Taxes to be recovered from the salary.
The case was argued on behalf of Megha Technical by Veteran Senior Advocate Dr Ashok Saraf and was assisted by Koushik Roy, Sumana Debbarma, Pritam Baruah and Rohan Chakraborty and the state was represented by Addl G A K. Dey.