INBIOS PETROLEUM (P) LIMITED Vs. COMMERCIAL TAX OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is one and the same in both the writ petitions. In W.P. No. 7747 of 2004, the petitioner challenges the provisional assessment order dated February 18, 2004 passed by the Commercial Tax Officer, Adyar-I Assessment Circle/Chennai. The petitioner is an importer of superior kerosene oil ("SKO", in short) and the supplier to various industries. The petitioner is a registered dealer under the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act, 1959 ("the State Act", in short) and the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 ("the Central Act", in short) on the file of the first respondent. The issue in these writ petitions relates to the assessment year 2003-2004 and the period involved is from April, 2003 to October, 2003. On November 14, 2003, the officers of the first respondent-Department caused inspection of the business branch premises at Coimbatore and the petitioner furnished statements for the period from April, 2003 to October, 2003 relating to the sale of SKO. According to the petitioner, the entire consignment imported and sold to various parties in Tamil Nadu is an inter-State sale covered by C forms and therefore there is no element of local sales.

(2.) On the contrary, the first respondent took the stand that the sale had occasioned inside the State of Tamil Nadu and it is not a case of inter-State sale. In support of the same, the first respondent issued a notice dated January 14, 2004 in TNGST No. 0861669/2003-04 and the petitioner-dealer filed their objections on February 10, 2004. In the notice dated January 14, 2004, the following were the charges:

(3.) In the reply dated February 10, 2004, while reiterating the stand that it was a case of inter-State sale of SKO from Cochin to various purchasers in Tamil Nadu, the petitioner relied upon various documents like the purchase orders, Central excise documents to show the proof of despatch of goods from Cochin to the purchasers in Tamil Nadu and the documents were annexed to the reply dated February 10, 2004. The petitioner also relied upon a certificate issued by the Assistant Commissioner (Assessment), Special Circle II, Commercial Taxes, Ernakulam, dated January 27, 2004 in support of the plea that the goods in question, viz., SKO had already suffered four percent Central sales tax at Kerala and therefore the first respondent's claim of local sales is far-fetched. The petitioner had taken pains to enclose all the documents submitted to the authority, as part of the typed-set of papers, and after taking note of the detailed objections and after extracting the entire objections including the case laws relied upon, the Commercial Tax Officer has passed the impugned provisional assessment order overruling the objections and provisionally assessing the total and taxable turnover for the period from April 1, 2003 to October 31, 2003 and thereafter demanding tax and penalty. The said order is under challenge in W.P. No. 7747 of 2004.