9911796707
TMI Blog1983 (3) TMI 90X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Salaries paid to Tour. Deptt. Personnel 1,43,305 Telegram, Telex and Trunk Call charges 50,705 Gifts to foreign agents 542 . 4,10,404 The assessee's appeal a claim for allowance of relief on the entire amount is claimed, whereas in the department's appeal the relief granted by the CIT (A) on half of Rs. 4,10,404 is objected to. 3. The real dispute in the assessee's appeal in the grant of relief u/s 35B relates to the salaries of the Tourist department personnel Rs. 1,37,073 domestic travel expenses Rs. 41,932, motor car expenses of tour promoters Rs. 36,633 and gifts to foreign agents and expenses incurred in connection with their visits Rs. 1,75,521. These matters had come up for consideration before the Tribunal for the earlier years in ITA Nos. 2980 to 2983 (Bom) / 1979. The objection against allowance of relief in respect of some of the items by the commissioner obtaining in the departmental appeal also was the subject matter of appeals before the Tribunal in the above appeals for earlier years. 4. Having heard the parties, we direct that the decision of the Tribunal in the above appeals for the earlier years be followed for the year under appeal as well. Thus out ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t of share capital of Rs. 66,00,000, internal accruals Rs. 61,00,000 term loans Rs. 2,11,00,000 temporary advances Rs. 23,00,000 and sundry creditors Rs. 40,00,000. The hotel at Goa was partially opened with two floors of the visitors from 1st January, 1979, the remaining floors of the total became functional from February, 1980. In respect of the amounts borrowed for the purpose of the above investment the assessee had paid a sum of Rs. 4,24,545 by way of interest and this amount was claimed as deduction from the total income of the year. The ITO and the Commissioner rejected the claim. This is challenged before us in the assessee's appeal. 8. The ld. Counsel for the assessee has pointed out that tourism is an activity where it had to coordinate all the activities variously referred to above and crystalised the product and market it to tourists. The object clause of the company specifies apart from the activities mentioned above carrying on the business of hotels, restaurants, motel, cafe, road houses, caravan sites, etc. The entire activity is an integrated operation. During the year of account the assessee had overall profits of Rs. 27,49,283 from the travel division and a los ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... being carried on all over the world including places like New York. The assessee on the receipt of commission for reserving tickets for customers, Indian and foreign for the purposes of travelling and making reservations in hotels, conducting tours etc. A good portion of its activities covers the hotel and accommodation part of the business. In fact the entire income from hotel booking, reservation of tickets, etc., is assessed as from a single business, even though separate accounts in order to get tax benefits are maintained for the hotel at Goa. There is complete inter-connection, interlacing, etc., between the activities of the hotel as well as the assessee's other business. To expand the business as a travel agents the assessee has necessarily to extent its offices abroad and start new offices, new hotels and new site-seeing, guiding tours, etc. In connection with its tourist meetings attended by international travel agents and hoteliers of the world over, the assessee has often to hold meeting etc., for which purpose no more convenient and less expensive mode could be available than a hotel owned by the assessee in a potentially good tourist area. As a travel agent the asses ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f motor and other vehicles, garage proprietors, livery stable keepers, jobmasters, farmers, dairymen, ice merchants, importers, and brokers of food live and dead stock, and colonial and foreign produce of all descriptions, hairdressers, perfumers, chemists, proprietors of clubs, baths, dressing rooms, laundries, reading, writing and newspaper rooms, libraries, grounds, and all kinds, tobacco and cigar merchants, agents for railway, shipping and air-plane companies and carriers, theatrical and opera box office proprietors, entrepreneurs and general agents, and any other business which can be conveniently carried on in connection therewith." It is clear that the assessee's business is a comprehensive one. The development of tourist industry and earning of income there from involves, as rightly claimed by the assessee, booking of airlines and other tickets hotel accommodation, arranging tours internationally and nationally, providing guidance to visit different areas of tourist importance etc., the assessee has as part of its business to book accommodation in hotels either on short term or on long term basis. To own a hotel and use that for the purpose would only be a part of this p ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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