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2023 (1) TMI 1004 - ITAT INDOREUnexplained Hawala Transactions - commission income from hawala business - incriminating documents found and seized which divulged that the assessee was engaged courier/transfer of money from one place/person to another place/person which was termed by revenue-authorities as “Hawala business” - HELD THAT:- Firstly, the revenue-authorities have loudly and unambiguously identified, found and understood the nature of activity done by assessee which is just a courier/transfer of money for earning a commission of Rs. 100/- to Rs. 200/- per lac. This activity remains same in all transactions. Secondly, all transactions have been retrieved/decoded from the same set of evidences, namely the same mobile phones. Thirdly, the details of all transactions as retrieved/decoded, such as names/mobile numbers of senders/receivers, serial numbers of currency notes, amount of money transacted in code words like “Kg”, “@”, “P”, “Peti”, etc. and in some cases the full amounts itself or in lacs or after omitting zeros, were exactly identical. Fourthly, the assessee had provided complete postal addresses, phone numbers and PANs of the persons of all transactions which is clearly evident from Para No. 10.2 and 10.3 of the assessment-order. However, the only difference is such that out of 79 transactions, the persons of 43 transactions did not turn up and persons of 36 transactions only responded. It is highly probable that those persons have actually availed services of assessee for courier/transfer of money but when it comes to enquiry by income-tax department, they did not respond to avoid hassles of tax authorities. Be that as it may, the activity of assessee in all transactions is clearly manifest from the details of transactions retrieved/decoded from the mobile phones seized during search-proceeding, which is one single activity i.e. courier/transfer of money on behalf of clients with an objective to earn commission. Therefore, there is no reason to distinguish the two categories of transactions merely on the basis of responsive/non-responsive attitude of those persons. We feel that the taxation-authorities must assess the income of assessee in a proper and judicious manner so as to charge a proper amount of tax, neither a penny less nor a penny more. We also observe that there is no evidence on record brought by revenue, despite search-proceeding, that the impugned “unexplained transactions” of 43 persons were different in any manner or structure than the “explained transactions” of 36 persons. We observe that the various reasons cited in the beginning of this paragraph clearly reveal that all transactions were at par. Being so, we do not find any merit in the claim of revenue that the so-called “unexplained transactions” should be accorded a different treatment than the “explained transactions”. We observe that the Ld. CIT(A) has given a careful thought to the facts of case and validly held that the assessee must have earned only commission of Rs. 36,71,832/- on all transactions of Rs. 15,29,93,132/-. Having said so, Ld. CIT(A) was justified in applying a commission-rate of Rs. 200/- per lac on 8,25,03,772/- which results in estimated commission-income of Rs. 1,65,007/- for 1 month and extrapolating the same for 12 months arriving at commission of Rs. 19,80,088/- for the whole year. Finally, Ld. CIT(A) has rightly ordered the Ld. AO to assess commission-income of Rs. 19,80,088/- and thereby granted a relief of Rs. 8,05,23,676/- (Rs. 8,25,03,764/- minus Rs. 19,80,088/-) to the assessee. Addition on account of “explained-transactions” - We find that the Ld. CIT(A) has allowed telescoping benefit of the whole addition of Rs. 36,71,872/- (which of course includes the alleged addition of Rs. 16,91,744/-) against the cash balance of Rs. 98,09,930/- seized during search and surrendered by assessee but that ground is neither raised before us nor pleaded/argued during the course of hearing. Therefore, we are not called upon to adjudicate the same. Thus, Revenue’s Ground No. 2 is also devoid of merit.
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