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TMI Blog1996 (1) TMI 107X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t the reassessment order. Referred Application No. 8 of 1987 relates to the assessment year 1976-77. The following questions of law for the assessment year 1974-75 are referred to this court under section 60 of the Kerala Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1950 : " 1. Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal is legally right in holding that the expenditure incurred in the Board meeting of the company and filing fee paid to the Registrar of Companies, being expenditure incurred under the requirements of company law, is not an allowable expenditure under section 5(j) of the Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1950 ? 2. Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of the case, the Tribunal is legally right in the inter ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... income and, therefore, they cannot be allowed under the provisions of the Act. The Deputy Commissioner (Appeals) concurred with the findings of the Assessing Officer. Aggrieved by the order of the Deputy Commissioner (Appeals), the assessee filed a second appeal before the Agricultural Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, Trivandrum. Various items of disallowance are : (1) Board meeting expenses : (2) Cost of court fee stamps : (3) Filing fees paid to the Registrar of Companies ; and (4) Rehabilitation allowance. The Appellate Tribunal also sustained disallowance of the above items. Now, coming to the assessment year 1974-75, we first take the question in R. A. No. 7 of 1987 : " Whether, on the facts and in the circumstances of th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... are satisfied. It has been so held by this court while interpreting the provisions of section 19 of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act, which is in pari materia with the provisions of section 35 of the Act and held that if income had escaped assessment, whatsoever, even if there is a case of mere change of opinion, there is no fetter in section 19 of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act disabling the assessing authority to reassess the escaped turnover. A mere change of opinion on the same materials will be sufficient to reopen the assessment, vide Deputy CST v. T. P. Elias [1993] 90, STC 25 ; [1991] 1 KLT 395. Respectfully following the said decision, we hold that the Tribunal was right in holding that the reopening of the assessment in the inst ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... under the said section 5(j) but it was submitted that the expenditure incurred for preparing the return of income and statements to be filed before the Income-tax Officer and the remuneration paid to counsel for conducting the case before the income-tax authorities was not an allowable deduction, and this was upheld. But the Supreme Court observed that there was no real distinction between the expenditure incurred for the purpose of maintaining the accounts and getting them audited and for the purpose of preparing a return of income under the said Act. The Supreme Court accordingly, held that the professional fee paid to an auditor for the purpose also falls under section 5(j). Now, coming to the facts of the present case, the Tribunal f ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... deriving agricultural income from rubber trees an amount calculated at the rate of Rs. 10 for every fifty- kilograms of rubber produced from such trees shall be deducted towards rehabilitation or replanting allowance. The Explanation thereto provides that rubber means only the dry rubber. It further says that in the case of latex, 100 kgs. of latex shall be taken as equivalent to 35 kgs. of rubber. According to the assessee, the rubber produced from such trees stands for the latex extracted from the trees and not the centrifuged latex accounted for by the applicant. But the Tribunal has taken the view that what is material here is the computation of latex as accounted for in the books of the applicant as production and need not give undue i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e latex taken from the trees has a large quantity of watery content. The replantation allowance is intended to be given only based on the rubber content of latex taken from the trees. The stage at which the provisions of rule 8G are to be applied, according to us, is the stage of rubber immediately after extraction from the trees. It is also worthwhile to note that this is an incentive given to the planters for removing the old unyielding trees and to substitute new plants as a measure for increased agricultural production. Therefore, such a provision must be construed in the same spirit having regard to the purpose for which the deduction is given. On a consideration of the provision of rule 8G and the mode of processing employed by the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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