Justice T.S Sivagnanam of Madras High Court, while hearing a writ petition filed by M/s Maxtherm Technologies Private Limited, held that the power to rectify an error under section 55 of the Tamil Nadu General Sales Tax Act can be invoked even in case of a revisional assessment.
In the instant case, the petitioners claimed exemption in respect of the Renewable Energy Equipments and Devices. The Assessing Officer rejected the same. Subsequently, in the light of notification dated 17.03.1993, the petitioner sought for rectification of the assessment. However, the application was again rejected by the Assessing Officer by holding that power to rectify error cannot be exercised in case of a revisional assessment.
The Court rejected the contention of the Revenue that the AO cannot exercise his power under Section 55 of the Act to revise the assessment, since the assessment itself was a revision of assessment made under Section 16 of the TNGST Act. “This conclusion wholly is not tenable for the simple reason that even the revised assessment is an assessment by itself,” the Court said.
Therefore, it was held that the Assessing Officer is well within the jurisdiction to invoke his power under Section 55 to rectify an error occurred while completing the assessment or the revised assessment.
Read the full text of the Judgment below.
