Mumbai: Actor Anushka Sharma has approached the Bombay High Court against the proceedings of the Sales Tax department initiated against her, on Thursday. "Bombay High Court agrees to hear a petition filed by actor Anushka Sharma challenging the proceedings against her initiated by the Sales Tax Department. Court has issued notice to the respondents on Anushka's plea and has kept the matter for hearing on February 6," news agency ANI reported.
The High court has directed the Maharashtra government to file its response to a plea filed by actor Anushka Sharma in a sales tax row. She has challenged the order passed by the Deputy Commission of Sales tax at Mazgaon Mumbai raising dues for the assessment year 2012-13 and 2013-14 under the Maharashtra Value Added Tax (VAT) 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 the assessment year 2013-14, the tax levied was ₹1.6 crores on approximately ₹17 crore consideration, Sharma pointed out in her plea.
She alleged that AO erroneously held that she had acquired copyright through endorsements and anchoring award functions, and had sold or transferred the same. She contended that the 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.
