Supreme Court Judgments, Summarised

by Barrister Tahmidur Rahman | Nov 3, 2026

Summary

Grameen Kalyan challenged an order dated 27.11.2017 of the Commissioner of Taxes, Taxes Zone-14, Dhaka. After the Additional Commissioner had cancelled its assessments for the assessment years 2012-2013 to 2016-2017 under section 120 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 1984, the petitioner filed revisions under section 121A, which the Commissioner rejected by order dated 14.11.2017. That order mistakenly recorded the tax payable on the returns as paid. After notice to the petitioner, the Commissioner corrected the order under section 173, recording that the tax was unpaid and rejecting the revisions for non-compliance with section 121A(4)(b). The High Court Division found the impugned order merely corrected one word, that section 173 empowered the Commissioner to correct the error on his own motion, and that the petitioner had not paid the tax due under section 74, being unable to treat tax deducted at source from Grameen Telecom as its own payment. The Rule was discharged, the stay vacated, and the respondents were directed to issue a demand notice for the unpaid tax.

Issues

  1. Q1

    Whether the Commissioner of Taxes could, under section 173 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 1984, correct his earlier revision order which had wrongly recorded the undisputed tax as paid.

  2. Q2

    Whether the petitioner had paid the tax payable on its returns, as required by section 121A(4)(b) as a pre-condition to a revision, when it relied on tax deducted at source in the name of Grameen Telecom.

Key points

  • Payment of the tax payable on the returns is a pre-condition to entertaining a revision under section 121A(4)(b) of the Income Tax Ordinance, 1984, and the petitioner had not paid it.
  • An assessee filing returns under section 75(2)(d)(iii) is bound to pay tax under section 74 and cannot treat tax paid at source by Grameen Telecom as its own payment.
  • Section 173 of the Ordinance empowers the Commissioner to correct an error in his order on his own motion, and a correction made within thirteen days after prior notice to the assessee was lawful.
  • The impugned order merely corrected the word recording the tax as paid to unpaid in the earlier revision order and disclosed no illegality warranting interference.
  • As the impugned order was a continuation of the action challenged in Writ Petition No. 14364 of 2017, a fresh writ petition could have been avoided by seeking a supplementary rule in that petition.

it was legally bound to pay tax as per section 74 of the Ordinance having no scope to walk away treating payment of tax by Grameen Telecom at source as its own payment.

From the judgment, Justice Md. Mozibur Rahman Miah
Law considered

Income Tax Ordinance, 1984, section 121A(4)(b)Income Tax Ordinance, 1984, section 173Income Tax Ordinance, 1984, section 74

The judgment

In the court’s own words.

Writ Petition 17727/2017, as published by the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. 15 pages, with paragraph numbers for citing.

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