72. Penalties relating to returns and assessment

(1) A dealer who fails to furnish a return or who fails to pay the tax due on any return furnished as required under the Act shall be liable to pay together with any tax or interest due,

(a) a penalty of fifty rupees for each day of default and where such default is more than five days, such penalty,-

(i) shall not exceed two hundred and fifty rupees if the tax due is less than the said amount;

(ii) shall be calculated at fifty rupees per day not exceeding the amount of tax due, if the tax due is more than two hundred and fifty rupees; and

(b) a further penalty equal to,-

(i) five percent of the amount of tax due or fifty rupees whichever is higher, if the default is not for more than ten days, and days;

(ii) ten percent of the tax due, if the default is for more than ten

Provided that no penalty shall be payable for failure to furnish a return for any tax period in a year under this sub-section by a dealer who not being liable to get registered under section 22 and is also not liable to  pay any tax for such tax period, if he makes an application for cancellation of his certificate of registration.

(2) A dealer who for any prescribed tax period furnishes particulars for preparation of a return or furnishes a return which understates his liability to tax or overstates his entitlement to a tax credit by more than five per cent of his actual liability to tax, or his actual tax credit, as the case may be shall after being given the opportunity of showing cause in writing against the imposition of a penalty, be liable to a penalty equal to ten per cent of the amount of such tax under or overstated.

(3) A dealer who furnishes a return which is incomplete or incorrect in any material particular, as informed in a notice issued to him shall be liable to a penalty of fifty rupees for each day the return remains incomplete or incorrect.

(3-A) A dealer who fails to furnish or furnishes incomplete or incorrect particulars for preparation of the return as notified under the proviso to sub-section (1) of section35, as informed in a notice issued to him shall be liable to a penalty of fifty rupees for each day the return remains incomplete or incorrect.

(4) In any case where a dealer who has failed to furnish a return has been issued with an assessment showing less than his actual liability to tax and he pays such tax as assessed, such dealer, after being given the opportunity of showing cause in writing against the imposition of a penalty, shall be liable to a penalty of ten per cent of the amount of the tax under-assessed.

(5) A dealer who fails, within the time specified, to get registered though liable to do so, after being given an opportunity of showing cause in writing against the imposition of a penalty, shall be liable to pay penalty of thirty percent of the amount of tax payable by him as assessed under section 38 or re-assessed under section 39.

(6) The power to levy the above penalties shall be vested in the prescribed authority to which returns are required to be furnished or the prescribed authority making an assessment or re-assessment

(7) Any dealer who fails to submit returns as required by the provisions of the Act continuously for three months or two quarters, as a  case may be, shall on conviction, in addition to recovery of any tax or penalty or interest or other amount that may be due from him or levied on him, be punishable with simple imprisonment which may extend to six months or with a fine which shall not be less than five thousand rupees but which may extend to twenty five thousand rupees or with both and when the offence is a continuing one, with a daily fine not exceeding two hundred rupees during the period of continuance of the offence