My father placed an order for procuring Teak wood from a timber merchant in Trivandrum.
We made the payment but since we were just beginning the construction of our home, we had to arrange necessary storage space at our site to store the wood. Hence we took actual delivery of the timber from the merchant's yard three days later.
The products were invoiced as per the original date of purchase (3 days before we transported it). Now the real problem starts. I was accompanying the truck with the load of timber. Commercial taxes team intercepted our vehicle and asked to produce the documents. After verifying the bill they made a conclusion that I have been using an old invoice to transport the goods and its likely that I have been doing this several times in the past couple of days with the same bill. I tried to convince them that we had to take delayed delivery since we had to arrange for storage at our work site. But the officials never listened. According to them since the timber yard and our work site was within 20 km distance, the stock should have been transported in less than 24 hours from the bill date.
They fined me 60K and asked to pay up or else they will confiscate the goods.
Eventually I called up my father under whose name the bill was generated. Since he had influence, he spoke with the commissioner of Comm. taxes. The commissioner instructed the team to visit our site and verify our claim and if convinced then to release the goods. The team accompanied us to the building site and finally they were convinced, and after a bit of paper work they cleared us out of it and the case was closed.
My question is: Once I buy a product like wood am I supposed to transport it within 24 hours? Is there such a legal time frame?
I believe I have the freedom to transport it anywhere within the same state, anytime, any day as long as I carry the original bill with me. Please shed some light on this with your valuable thoughts.
Regards,
Raj
