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2019 (2) TMI 456 - HC - Income TaxReopening of assessment u/s 147 - non-filing of return (ITR) - reason to believe - Held that:- Assessing Officer has proceeded on wrong premise that even when called upon to state why the petitioner had not filed return of income, he had not responded to the said query. The petitioner did communicate to the Department that he had no taxable income and therefore, there was no requirement to file the return. The Assessing Officer did not carry out any further inquiry before issuing the impugned notice. In the reasons, one more error pointed out by the petitioner is that the Assessing Officer referred to the sum of ₹ 18.82 crore as total transaction in the commodities. In the petition as well as in the objections raised before the Assessing Officer, the petitioner pointed out that his sales were to the tune of ₹ 16.82 crore against purchases of 16.84 crore and thereby, he had actually suffered a loss. The Assessing Officer has not discarded these assertions. We are conscious that the petitioner not having filed return of income and consequently there being no scrutiny assessment, the Assessing Officer would have much wider latitude to reopen the assessment. However, in such a case also, the primary requirement of the Assessing Officer having a reason to believe that the income chargeable to tax had escaped assessment would apply. Decided against the revenue.
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