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2022 (1) TMI 884 - AT - Income TaxPenalty u/s. 271B - absence of auditing u/s. 44AB - assessee contended before the authorities below that it had maintained proper books of account as prescribed under the provisions of Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act, 1960 which were duly audited as per the provisions of that Act - HELD THAT:- Section 271B requiring imposition of penalty for failure to get the accounts audited u/s. 44AB, is covered u/s. 273B, which, in turn, prescribes that no penalty shall be imposed if reasonable cause for the failure is established. We are confronted with a case of a Cooperative Society dealing with small farmers having turnover of less than ₹ 1.00 crore with the exclusion of the amount of grant-in-aid. The very fact that the assessee got its accounts audited under the Cooperative Societies Act prima facie shows that it entertained a bona fide belief that the amount of grant-in-aid received from Government of Maharashtra was not includible for the purposes of computing turnover u/s. 44AB. Had it been otherwise, it would have got the accounts audited u/s. 44AB apart from the auditing for the purposes of Cooperative Society Act. Considering all there was a reasonable cause in the assessee not getting the accounts audited u/s. 44AB resulting in attracting of section 271B of the Act. Since the penalty section is covered u/s. 273B, we hold that the penalty was not required to be levied and confirmed. The same is hereby directed to be deleted. - Decided in favour of assessee.
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