Telangana High Court: A Division Bench of Sanjay Kumar and Kunuru Lakshman, JJ. allowed the writ petition of the company who was aggrieved as his appeal against the assessment order regarding the Telangana Tax Entry of Goods to Local Areas Act, 2001 was dismissed by the Appellate Deputy Commissioner (CT), Secunderabad Division, Hyderabad.
In the present case, an assessment order was passed against the petitioner under the Telangana Tax on Entry of Goods into Local Areas Act, 2001 regarding the tax period of 2015-16. The petitioner, in order to dispute the amount of tax levied, filed an appeal against this order before the Appellate Deputy Commissioner (CT), Secunderabad Division, Hyderabad. However, the Appellate Deputy Commissioner dismissed the appeal on the ground that petitioner did not pay 12.5 per cent of the disputed amount of tax within the stipulated time, and as such delay in depositing the requisite amount of tax could not be condoned.
The Court relied on the decision in Innovatives Systems v. State of A.P., 2015 SCC OnLine SC 1811 where it was held that when an appeal is filed within the limitation period but the deposit of the disputed amount of tax is paid beyond the prescribed limitation period, then the appellate authority must condone the delay in compliance and decide the appeal on merits.
It was opined that it was not proper on the part of the Appellate Deputy Commissioner (CT) to reject the appeal filed by the petitioner-company on the ground of delayed deposit of 12.5 per cent of the disputed amount of tax.
Thus, the impugned order was set aside directing the Commissioner to dispose of the appeal of the petitioner herein within 30 days.[Hyderabad Cylinders Private Ltd. v. Commercial Tax Officer, 2019 SCC OnLine TS 1359, decided on 28-08-2019]