Section 34(7) in The Himachal Pradesh Value Added Tax Act, 2005
(7)The officer detaining the goods shall record the statement, if any, given by the owner of the goods or his representative or the driver or other person.in-charge of the goods carriage or vessel and shall require him to produce proper and genuine documents as referred to in sub-section (2) or sub-section (4), as the case may be, before him in his office on a specified date on which date the officer shall submit the proceeding along with the connected records to such officer as may be authorised in that behalf by the State Government for conducting necessary enquiry in the matter. The said officer shall, before conducting the enquiry, serve a notice on the owner of the goods and give him an opportunity of being heard and if, after the enquiry, such officer finds that there has been an attempt to evade the tax due under this Act, he shall, by order, impose on the owner of the goods a penalty [equal to twenty-five percentum of the value of the goods] [Substituted for the words 'not exceeding twenty-five percentum of the value of the goods but which shall not be less than fifteen percentum of the value of the goods,' by Act No.14 of 2009 vide notification No. . LLR-D (6)-20/2009-Leg. Dated 19.9.2009 published in R.H.P. (Extra-ordinary) on 22.9.2009.] and in case he finds otherwise, shall order the release of the goods.
