Sales Tax Instructions

Sales Tax Instructions, 2009
3. A question has arisen whether or not a registered person is liable to penalty and
additional tax under section 23(1) and 34 of the Act if there is a public holiday on the due date
and he files his tax return in the Bank on the next working day. The computer system of the
Collectorate has an inbuilt package, which automatically generates a show cause notice in cases
where, return, by any reason is filed after the due date. The registered persons in their defence
quote section 10 of the General Clauses Act, 1897 which reads as under:-
―Computation of time; where by any Central Act or regulations made after commencement of this
Act, any act or proceeding is directed or allowed to be done or taken in any court or office on a
certain day or within a prescribed period, then, if the court of office is closed on that day or the
last day of the prescribed period, the act or proceedings shall be considered as done or taken in
the due time if it is done or taken on the next day afterwards on which the court or office is open
―provided that nothing in this section shall apply to any act or proceeding to which the Indian
Limitation Act, 1877 (IX of 1908) applies.‖
This section also applies to all Central Acts and Regulations made on or after the
fourteenth day of January, 1887.
4. Another argument in this regard is the electricity and sui gas bills, which inter alia
contain the condition that in case of public holiday the due date will be next working day. The
Collector (Appeals) in certain cases has also waived of penalty and additional tax in pursuit of the
above provisions of the General Clauses Act.
5. This Collectorate holds the view that a tax period closes on the last day of the relevant
calendar month and the period of fifteen days is a grace time enabling the registered person to
properly close his accounts for the tax period, prepare tax return etc. The job may be completed
even in a day or week. The due date is the maximum period and the return can be filed without
waiting for that date. So in cases where the registered person despite knowing that a public
holiday falls on the due date, fails to file the return before the due date, the provisions of section
33(1) and 34 will be attracted.
6. The Board is requested to examine the above mentioned legal issue and enlighten this
Collectorate with the appropriate clarification. In case the provisions of section 10 of the General
Clauses Act, prevail over the definition of the due date‖ then this Collectorate suggests then subsection
(2) of the Sales Tax Act, 1990 warrants amendments.
[Issued by the Collectorate of Sales tax & Central Excise, Peshawar, under the signature of Mr. S.
A. Alam, Collector, being addressed to the Secretary (STP), Sales Tax Wing, Central Board of
revenue, Islamabad.]
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C. NO.2(2)STP/99 DATED 20 TH JULY, 2000
SUBJECT:- CLARIFICATION REGARDING THE CONDITION OF
SECTION 15 OF THE SALES TAX ACT, 1990 FOR INPUT TAX
ADJUSTMENT UNDER SECTION 59 IBID
I am directed to refer to your letter C. No.16(108)S. Tax/W/Tech/98, dated
11.01.1999 on the above subject and to state that objection raised by the audit that benefit
of section 59 was linked with the application for registration under the then section 15
which required that the persons requiring registration were bound to apply within 30 days
of the time when such persons were first required to be registered hence all those persons
who were required to be registered on 01.07.1996 and had got registration after
31.07.1996 did not qualify for the benefit of the section 59 of the Act, was referred to the
Law and Justice Division stating that:-