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TMI Blog1984 (2) TMI 138X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... through Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation of India Ltd., who were provided with railway line facility. Accordingly, the assessee did not get actual railway lines over the siding. However, the siding along with the platform and shed was used for the purposes of the business of the assessee. The ITO referring to section 32(1)(iii) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 ('the Act'), said that the section covers only depreciable items like building, plant, machinery and furniture. It comes into operation only when the depreciation is allowed on the asset discarded or demolished during the year under appeal. The assessee-company did not claim any depreciation on the above expenditure and, therefore, it could not be allowed under section 32(1)(iii). ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... use no depreciation was claimed by the assessee, the assessee may not lose the advantage of section 32(1)(iii). Hence, the assessee's claim should have been accepted by the Commissioner (Appeals). Alternatively, Shri Saraf urged that the assessee had a rest platform with a shed. The shed was used for storage and stacking. The shed was not required and during the year under appeal it has been demolished. Hence, it was in the category of a building and even on this ground the claim of the assessee should have been accepted. 4. The departmental representative, Shri S. Dasgupta, on the other hand, urged that the assessee cannot be allowed relief under section 32(1)(iii) unless the conditions are fulfilled. The assessee must indicate that buil ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... pect of plant, machinery, building and furniture sold, demolished, etc., after deducting the scrap value from the depreciated value. In the instant case, no depreciation has been claimed. Therefore, the depreciated value is the cost. The assessee had not shown any scrap value which ought to have been shown or could be determined on estimate. Now the only question is that railway siding was incomplete or a siding which was used by the assessee for the purposes of storage and stacking was a plant or a building or it was neither a plant nor a building. 6. The definition of plant under section 43(3) of the Act is not very exhaustive and the word 'plant' in its ordinary meaning is a word of wide import. It has been considered by the Courts on ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... re expressly included in the definition of plant in section 43(3) of the Act. It includes any article or object, fixed or movable, live or dead, used by a businessman for carrying on his business. It is not necessarily confined to an apparatus which is used for mechanical operations or processes or is employed in mechanical or industrial business. It would not, however, cover, the stock-in-trade, that is, goods bought or made for sale by a businessman. It would also not include an article which is merely a part of the premises in which the business is carried on. An article to qualify as 'plant' must furthermore have some degree of durability and that which is quickly consumed or worn out in the course of a few operations or within a short ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... so sounds well that simply because the asset was incomplete, it would not change its character and it would remain the same asset. If the railway siding is a plant, it would not lose its character and it would remain a plant even though it was only a siding. In this connection, the observation of the same author at page 1250 in connection with machinery is relevant. The author has observed that machinery need not be a self-contained unit : it may but be a part of a bigger machine, or it may even be one that is used in conjunction with one or more machines before it can commence to operate. Nor would 'machinery' cease to be machinery merely because it has been installed as part of a manufacturing or industrial plant. It would continue to be ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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