9911796707
TMI Blog2023 (9) TMI 838X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ints. For the Assessment Year 2014-15, the assessee filed its original Return of Income declaring total income of Rs. 5,43,24,000/-. During the assessment proceedings, it was noticed that the assessee company had entered into certain specified domestic transactions whose value exceeded Rs. 5 Crores with related party u/s. 40A(2)(b) of the Act and also Chartered Accountant's report u/s. 92E of the Act on international/domestic transactions. Therefore the case was referred to Transfer Pricing Officer for determination of Arm's Length Pricing u/s. 92CA of the Act. The Ld. TPO determined the Arm's Length Price of the specified domestic transactions and recommended an upward adjustment of Rs. 1,89,74,894/- vide order dated 31-10-2017. After receipt of the TPO's order, the Assessing Officer passed a draft assessment order dated 15-11- 2017 u/s. 144C(1) of the Act and duly served on the assessee on 16-11-2017. 3.1. As per Section 144C(2) of the Act, within 30 days of the receipt of the draft assessment order, the assessee is supposed to (a) file his acceptance of the variations to the Assessing Officer, or (b) file his objections, if any, to such variations with- (i) The Dispute Re ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 39;ble ITAT has also observed that it is important that the application is filed with the DRP as well as the AO simultaneously within 30 days of receipt of the draft assessment order. 13. Since in this case the application was filed before the AO after the specified period of 30 days and the AO has already passed the final order within the period specified in section 144C(4) on 19.12.2017, prior to receiving the application in his office, which was filed on 04.01.2018, we do not find any infirmity in passing the final order by the AO and. since, the twin conditions of filing the objection before the DRP and AO is not satisfied in this case, we dismiss the objection of the assessee has not admitted." 5. The Ld. DRP also further observed that since final assessment order dated 19.12.2017 is already passed by the Assessing Officer and served on the assessee on 21.12.2017, it is always open to the assessee to challenge the same before Ld. CIT(A) with appropriate condonation of delay, explaining the reasons of pendency of the Objection Petition before DRP and can proceed with the appeal remedy available to the assessee. 6. Aggrieved against the same, the assessee is in appeal before ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ct, the assessee is open to file its appeal before Ld. CIT(A). Therefore the order passed by the Ld. DRP does not require any interference and therefore the appeal filed by the assessee is liable to be dismissed. 9. We have given our thoughtful consideration and perused the materials available on record. For adjudicating whether the objection filed by the assessee is well within the provisions of time limit prescribed under Act, Section 144C is reproduced for ready reference: "Sec.144C. REFERENCE TO DISPUTE RESOLUTION PANEL (1) The Assessing Officer shall, notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in this Act, in the first instance, forward a draft of the proposed order of assessment (hereafter in this section referred to as the draft order) to the eligible assessee if he proposes to make, on or after the 1st day of October, 2009, any variation in the income or loss returned which is prejudicial to the interest of such assessee. (2) On receipt of the draft order, the eligible assessee shall, within thirty days of the receipt by him of the draft order,- (a) file his acceptance of the variations to the Assessing Officer ; or (b) file his objections, if any, to suc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ctions which are prejudicial to the interest of the assessee or the interest of the Revenue, respectively. (12) No direction under sub-section (5) shall be issued after nine months from the end of the month in which the draft order is forwarded to the eligible assessee. (13) Upon receipt of the directions issued under sub-section (5), the Assessing Officer shall, in conformity with the directions, complete, notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in section 153, the assessment without providing any further opportunity of being heard to the assessee, within one month from the end of the month in which such direction is received. (14) The Board may make rules for the purposes of the efficient functioning of the Dispute Resolution Panel and expeditious disposal of the objections filed under sub-section (2) by the eligible assessee. (14A) The provisions of this section shall not apply to any assessment or reassessment order passed by the Assessing Officer with the prior approval of the Commissioner as provided in sub-section (12) of section 144BA. (15) For the purposes of this section,- (a) "Dispute Resolution Panel" means a collegium comprising of three Commissi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and served the same on the assessee on 21.12.2017. As rightly pointed by the Ld. DRP, there is no power u/s. 144C of the Act for the DRP to condone the delay. The powers of the DRP are exhaustively set out in section 144C of the Act and it has no power to condone any delay in filing objections either before it or before the Assessing Officer. Hence, the Ld. DRP rightly rejected the objection filed by the assessee as not maintainable. 9.3. In our considered view, delayed filing of objections gives rise to the same consequence as of non-filing of the objections. This is because objection filed after 30 days, which is beyond statutory limit, is as good as no Application filed by the assessee. Thus the assessee did not satisfy the conditions as stipulated in sub-section 2(b)(ii) of Section 144C of the Act. When there is no objection petition filed by the assessee against the draft assessment order, the Assessing Officer is required to pass, within further time period of 30 days, a final assessment order under sub-section (4) of section 144C of the Act. Here in this case, the final assessment order was passed by the Assessing Officer on 19.12.2017 and served the same to the assessee o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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