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2017 (8) TMI 1586 - AT - Income TaxDepreciation on buses - as assessee company engaged in the business of transportation of passengers and is registered under the Motor Vehicle Act, which clarifies the buses used for the transporting and carrying passengers, therefore eligible for depreciation at 30% instead of 15 % and even otherwise definition of (contract carriage) and (stage carriage) as per section 2(3) & 2(29) of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1963 was extracted to infer that the buses used in the transportation business were hired by the passengers, thus, entitling the buses for a higher rate of deprecation - HELD THAT:- Stage Carriage” is defined in Sec.2(29) of The M.V. Act - ‘Stage carriage’ means a motor vehicle carrying or adapted to carry more than six persons excluding the driver which carries passengers for hire or reward at separate fares paid by or for individual passengers, either for the whole journey or for stage of the journey.” As in the instant cases, the buses are registered under the Motor Vehicle Act, 1939 as ‘stage carriage’ or “ contract carriage” and even other wise the judgment of High Court of Kerala in the case of Balkrishna Transports [1996 (9) TMI 13 - KERALA HIGH COURT] Consideration of the "definition" of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 as well as perusal of the judgment and submissions of the parties, we do not have any hesitation to hold that Public Transport carries the passenger may be for one stop or more than that may be for smaller which can be limited or even otherwise certainly there is implied contract between passenger and the buses owner for "hire" and in our considered opinion, it cannot be said that the passenger individually or passengers jointly do not have any contract with the bus owner while carrying on journey, hence, the submissions of the Revenue Department does not sound good to the extent that the Ld. CIT(A) erred in holding that there is no difference between hiring out the vehicle for a specified period & for a consideration and letting the passenger travel in a vehicle on payment of charges ignoring that a passenger traveling in a bus purchases only right to travel between fixed points as per terms and conditions of the transporter. - Decided against revenue.
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