(1) Any officer who during the course of any inspection or search of any business place, building, godown or any other place, or while checking of goods under transport or verification of the bills at any place, finds that the dealer has not issued a sale bill or a tax invoice or cash memorandum in respect of any sale, in violation of section 11, he shall, without prejudice to any other provisions of the Act, be liable to pay by way of penalty, an amount not exceeding twice the amount of tax evaded or sought to be evaded or one thousand rupees whichever is higher, for the first offence and an amount not exceeding thrice the amount of net tax payable by the person or two thousand rupees whichever is higher for every subsequent offences.
(2) A dealer who commits the offence under sub-section (1) for more than ten occasions in a year shall be liable for cancellation of his registration.
Explanation:— ‘Officer’, for the purpose of this section, means the Commissioner appointed under this Act or any other officer not below the rank of Assistant Commercial Tax Officer specifically authorised by the Commissioner for this purpose.]