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TMI Blog2012 (2) TMI 261X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ore filing of income tax return or, for that purpose, before concluding the assessment proceedings – Decided against the Revenue. - I.T.A. No. 1326/Kol/ 2011 - - - Dated:- 17-2-2012 - Shri Pramod Kumar, Shri Mahavir Singh, JJ. Amitava Roy, for the appellant J N Gupta, for the respondent ORDER Per Pramod Kumar: 1. This appeal, filed by the Assessing Officer, is directed against the order dated 5th July 2011 passed by the Commissioner (Appeals) in the matter of penalty of Rs 5,00,000 imposed on the assessee under section 271AAA of the Income Tax Act, 1961, for the assessment year 2008-09. 2. Grievances raised by the Assessing Officer are as follows: 1. That in the facts and circumstances of the case, the le ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... that while filing the income tax return and due to an inadvertent mistake, the assessee did not compute interest levy under section 234 C. It was for this reason that the self assessment taxes were underpaid by Rs 46,132 but the assessee paid over the shortfall, within permissible time, upon receiving the notice of demand under section 156. It was thus argued that the tax, together with applicable interest, was duly paid by the assessee, and, accordingly, the condition regard payment of tax and interest was duly complied with. The Assessing Officer was, therefore, urged to drop the penalty proceedings. However, the Assessing Officer was not impressed with this submission. He rejected the submissions of the assessee and proceeded to impose t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... is computed @ 10% of the amount of disclosure at Rs 50,00,000. 4. Aggrieved, assessee carried the matter in appeal before the CIT(A). Learned CIT(A) noted that from a plain reading of the above section (i.e. 271AAA) it is apparent that if the conditions laid down under sub section 2 of Section 271 AAA are satisfied, no penalty will be imposed and that .in section 271AAA, there is no precondition that the tax along with interest must be paid before filing of return or any other specified date . It was in this backdrop, and in a situation in which it was an admitted position that due tax, along with interest, was paid before the penalty proceedings were concluded, the CIT(A) deleted the impugned penalty. The Assessing Officer is not sat ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... The provisions of sections 274 and 275 shall, so far as may be, apply in relation to the penalty referred to in this section. Explanation : For the purposes of this section, (a) undisclosed income means (i) any income of the specified previous year represented, either wholly or partly, by any money, bullion, jewellery or other valuable article or thing or any entry in the books of account or other documents or transactions found in the course of a search under section 132, which has (A) not been recorded on or before the date of search in the books of account or other documents maintained in the normal course relating to such previous year; or (B) otherwise not been disclosed to the Chief Commissioner or Commissioner before th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rse of the search, in a statement under section 132(4), admits the undisclosed income and specifies the manner in which such income has been derived; (ii) substantiates the manner in which the undisclosed income was derived; and (iii) pays the tax, together with interest, if any, in respect of the undisclosed income. While payment of taxes, along with interest, by the assessee is one of the conditions precedent for availing the immunity under section 271AAA(2), there is no time limit set out for such payments by the assessee. Once a time limit for payment of tax and interest has not been set out by the statute, it cannot indeed be open to the Assessing Officer to read such a time limit into the scheme of the Section or to infer one. There i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s of income or furnishing inaccurate particulars of income. Section 271 AAA, as the statute unambiguously provides, does not require any subjective satisfaction of the Assessing Officer to be arrived at during the assessment proceedings, and, therefore, the outer limit of payment before the conclusion of assessment proceedings will not come into play. 9. In our considered view, therefore, on the facts of the present case wherein entire tax and interest has been duly paid well within the time limit for payment of notice of demand under section 156 and well before the penalty proceedings were concluded, the assessee could not be denied the immunity under section 271AAA(2) only because entire tax, along with interest, was not paid before fi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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