2000 (4) TMI 189

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..... ssing Officer under section 271B of the Income-tax Act. 2. The assessee is a civil contractor. From the return filed, the Assessing Officer noted that the gross receipts from contracts exceeded Rs. 40 lakhs. As such, the assessee was required to get his accounts audited as per the provisions of section 44AB. As the assessee failed to get his accounts audited, the Assessing Officer initiated pena .....

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..... alised under section 271A for non-maintenance of accounts. There was no justification for levying penalty under section 271B in view of the judgment of the Gauhati High Court in the case of Surajmal parasuram Todi v. CIT [1996] 222 ITR 691. He further submitted that the return was filed under section 139(4) and provisions of section 44AB were not applicable when the return was filed under section .....

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..... of the Act. Even after maintenance of books of account the obligation of the assessee does not come to an end. He is required to do something more, ie. by getting books of account audited by an accountant. But when a person commits the offence of not maintaining the books of account as contemplated by section 44AA, the offence is complete. After that, there can be no possibility of any offence as .....

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