Tvl. Jayalakshmi Traders Vs State of Tamilnadu (Madras High Court)
The revision petition was filed against the order of the Tamil Nadu Sales Tax Appellate Tribunal, which had dismissed the petitioner’s appeal concerning VAT demand arising from stock discrepancies for the assessment year 2015–2016.
The petitioner, a distributor of beedies in Trichy District, was subjected to an inspection by the Enforcement Wing on 12.09.2015. During inspection, actual stock was verified and compared with the books of accounts, revealing discrepancies and consequent sales suppression. Based on this, a pre-revision notice was issued assessing suppressed turnover.
The petitioner submitted objections to the notice. However, the Commercial Tax Officer revised the assessment on 29.11.2016, determining escaped turnover and raising a demand along with penalty. On appeal, the appellate authority partly allowed relief by setting aside the penalty but confirmed the tax demand. The Tribunal subsequently dismissed the appeal filed by the petitioner, leading to the present revision before the High Court.
The primary contention raised by the petitioner was that the inspection team had wrongly included stock belonging to a sister concern while determining stock discrepancies, thereby inflating the alleged suppression. It was argued that this issue was not properly considered by the appellate authority and the Tribunal.
