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2006 (3) TMI 123 - HC - Wealth-taxReopening of assessment u/s 147 - Omission To Disclose Fully And Truly material fact - Powers u/s 17(1)(a) of the Wealth-tax Act - HELD THAT:- In the present case the assessee has disclosed gold ornaments and silver utensils. The only ground for reassessment is that he has claimed impurity at the rate of 25 per cent. for gold ornaments and 30 per cent. for silver utensils when as per the Wealth-tax Officer it should be not more than 15 per cent. in gold ornaments and 20 per cent. in silver utensils. Thus, it cannot be said in the present case that the assessee has not truly and fully disclosed the material fact relevant for the assessment. Similarly, as regards the valuation of flat is concerned, the Wealth-tax Officer while reopening has merely adopted some other system for valuation. The material facts which the assessee was required to place in his return was the details of the flat. Merely because the valuation can be arrived at by some other method does not mean that the assessee has not truly and correctly disclosed all material facts required to be disclosed by him and in such a situation the Tribunal has found by the impugned judgment that there was no further information made available to the Wealth-tax Officer for reopening of the case and there is no material on record to show that the assessee did not fully disclose the material facts which led to escapement or undervaluation of wealth or the wealth was assessed at a lower figure. This apart, the audit report could not form the basis for invoking the provisions of section 17(1)(b) of the Wealth-tax Act. In such situation in answer to questions Nos. (b) and (c) we hold that the Tribunal was right in dismissing the appeal filed by the Department and maintaining the order of the appellate authority. We do not find any merit in these appeals. Hence, all the appeals, stand dismissed on the merits as well as on the ground of maintainability with no order as to costs.
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