9911796707
TMI Blog2023 (6) TMI 1069X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and 2016-17 passed under section 271B of the Income Tax Act, 1961 ["Act" in short]. 2. Brief facts of the case are that as per the information available, the assessee had made cash deposits into its bank account during the assessment year 2013-14 and the assessee has not filed the return of income. The case was reopened and notice under section 148 of the Act was issued and served on 27.03.2021 for AY 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17. In compliance to the notice under section 148 of the Act, the assessee was required to file his ITR within 30 days from receipt of the said notice. However, the assessee filed its returns of income on 23.09.2021, 17.08.2021 and 22.09.2021 for AY 2013-14, 2014-15 & 2015-16 and 2016-17 respectively which ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... eopened and notice under section 148 of the Act was issued on 27.03.2021 for AY 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 and due to Covid pandemic lock down and income tax portal was under maintenance, the assessee was unable to file the return of income along with tax audit report under section 44AB of the Act within the due date as mentioned in the notice under section 148 of the Act. It was further submission that the audit report under section 44AB of the Act were furnished during the course of assessment proceedings, which was also considered by the Assessing Officer before concluding the assessment and thus, prayed for deleting the penalty levied under section 271B of the Act for all the assessment years under appeal. 5. On the other ha ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... out any mala fide intention of the assessee, the penalty cannot be levied under section 271B of the Act. 6.1 Similar issue on an identical fact was subject matter in appeal before this Tribunal in the case of Balaji Logistics v. ACIT in I.T.A. No. 2248/Chny/2019 dated 07.09.2022 for the assessment year 2015-16, wherein, the Tribunal has observed as under: "6. We have heard both the parties, perused the materials available on record and gone through orders of the authorities below. It is an admitted fact that although the assessee has filed Tax Audit Report in Form 3CB as required u/s.44AB of the Act, beyond due date specified u/s.139(1) of the Act, but such Tax Audit Report was made available to the AO before completion of assessment pro ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... society done by the Dept. of Cooperative Audit, could not be completed on or before 31.10.2015 and said delay was not in the hands of the assessee. Therefore, there is a reasonable cause for not filing the tax audit report within prescribed time limit ad thus, penalty cannot be levied. We find merits in the submission of the assessee for the simple reason that non-filing of audit report within the due date is a venial technical breach without any mala fide intention on the part of the assessee. Because, completion of audit of books of accounts of the society is under the control of Dept. of Cooperative Audit and thus, unless the Dept. of Cooperative Audit completes audit, the assessee cannot file return of income along with tax audit repor ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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