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2014 (5) TMI 1003 - HC - Income TaxReassessment - Validity of notice u/s 148 of the Act – Held that:- Relying upon Associated Stone Industries V/s. Commissioner of Income Tax, Jaipur [1997 (2) TMI 6 - SUPREME Court] - the information obtained by the Income Tax Officer need not be one outside the record; it may be one obtained from the assessment records already available - the facts which were revealed to the AO who carried out the assessment for A.Y. 2010 – 2011 was the 'information' as is contemplated by Section 147 of the Act leading the officer to form a belief that the income had escaped the assessment for the A.Y. 2006 – 2007 and 2008 – 2009. Whether the ‘information’ received to the AO is relating to A.Y. 2006-2007 and 2008-2009 – Held that:- On perusal of the reasons given by the respondents for reopening the assessment for A.Y. 2006 – 2007 and 2008 – 2009, it cannot be said that there was no information with the AO relating to the said assessment years - the information is received to the officer during the course of the assessment proceedings for A.Y. 2010 – 2011 – the information does not seem to be restricted only to A.Y. 2010 – 2011 - Material on record shows that petitioner company has debited the order procurement charges in the AY 2010 – 2011 and the deduction of the amount was claimed u/s 37(1) of the Act as business expenditure - The information received to the AO from the statement of Anil Asarkar is sufficient to draw a prima facie inference that Anil Asarkar (H.U.F.) might not have worked for the petitioner company and further that it was receiving the cheques from the petitioner company and giving them the cash back from the financial year 2006 – 2007 - the information which was received to the AO was sufficient for him to reasonably believe that the income had escaped assessment for the respective assessment years. The reasons recorded by the AO nowhere state that there was failure on the part of the assessee to disclose fully and truly all material facts necessary for the assessment of that assessment year - the reasons are required to be read as they were recorded by the AO - No substitution or deletion is permissible - No additions can be made to those reasons - No inference can be allowed to be drawn based on reasons not recorded - the reasons were recorded before issuance of the impugned notices - no malafides seen in the delay caused in communicating the reasons - the facts revealed to the AO during the assessment proceedings for A.Y. 2010 – 2011 is an ‘information’ contemplated by Section 147 of the Act - the information so revealed pertains to the assessment years to which the impugned notices relate - the information has direct nexus and/or live link with the tax liability for A.Y. year 2006 – 2007 and A.Y. 2008 – 2009 - the material in the hands of A.O. is prima facie sufficient for him to form a belief that income had escaped assessment of the assessment years to which the impugned notices relate and therefore, reassessment is needed - the issuance of notices is not an outcome of change in opinion of the successor AO but is based on tangible material received to him during the assessment proceedings of the subsequent year - The other two objections raised by the petitioner, first about the competence to issue the notice and the other that the action is beyond the period of limitation are kept open to be agitated before the appropriate authority – there was no fault with the notices – Decided against Assessee.
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