Bombay High Court seeks State's response on plea by Anushka Sharma in Sales Tax case

The Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the Maharashtra government to file its response to a petition filed by Bollywood actress and producer Anushka Sharma in a sales tax case..The actress has challenged the orders passed by the Deputy Commissioner of Sales Tax at Mazgaon, Mumbai raising dues for the assessment years 2012-13 and 2013-14 under the Maharashtra Value Added Tax (MVAT) Act.Sharma’s petitions stated that the assessing officer (AO) had wrongly levied sales tax on the consideration she received for endorsements and anchoring at award functions.For the assessment year 2012-13, the sales tax levied was ₹1.2 crore (inclusive of interest) on the consideration of ₹12.3 crore, for assessment year 2013-14, the tax levied was ₹1.6 crore on approximately ₹17 crore consideration, Sharma pointed out in her plea. She submitted that AO erroneously held that she had acquired copyright through endorsements and anchoring award functions, and had sold or transferred the same.The actress contended that copyright of videos was always retained by the producer, who also owned such videos and performer’s rights, which were not capable of being transferred or sold."Section 6(1) of the MVAT Act provides there shall be levied a 'sales tax' on the turnover of sales of goods. Therefore, unless it is established that there is a sale of goods, sales tax thereon cannot be levied," the plea filed through Advocate Deepak Bapat stated. .The actress had filed the petition in December through her tax consultant, however, a Bench led by Justice Nitin Jamdar had taken exception to the same.It had directed her to file the petition with her own affirmation. Accordingly, the petition was disposed of, and fresh petitions came to be filed thereafter. When the new plea came up for hearing on Thursday, Additional government pleader Jyoti Chavan sought time to reply to the petition. The division bench granted time for the same and posted the matter for hearing on February 6.