In a recent ruling, the High Court of Orissa held that the assessment order passed under Orissa Value Added Tax Act, 2004 (OVAT Act) consequent to the Audit Visit Report is not valid and set aside the order.
M/s. Bateman Engineering (India), the petitioner challenged the assessment order passed by the Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax, Barbil under Section 42 of the Orissa Value Added Tax Act, 2004 (OVAT Act).
A notice was issued in Form VAT 301 on 5th October 2013 fixing the date of the audit visit as 24th October 2013. The Petitioner states that it produces the required documents for the purpose of the audit and the audit was completed and the Audit Visit Report (AVR) was submitted on 7th April 2014. On that basis, a notice in Form VAT IV was issued to the Petitioner by the Department on 17th September 2014.
It was observed that the mandatory nature of the time limits set out in Section 41(4) of the OVAT Act that the report must be submitted within seven days of the conclusion of the audit visit has been emphasized.
While allowing the writ petition, Chief Justice M S Raman held that “with the said time limit not having been adhered to as far as the present case is concerned, the Court has no hesitation in concluding that all proceedings consequent to the said AVR including the impugned assessment order are unsustainable in law. “
The impugned assessment order and all proceedings and orders are set aside by the Court. Mr Subash Ch. Lal, Advocate appeared for the petitioner and Mr S.K. Pradhan & Mr Sunil Mishra appeared for the Revenue Department.
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