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2022 (3) TMI 1334 - AT - Income TaxReopening of assessment u/s 147 - Time limit for notice to be issued u/s 149 - escaped income from an asset outside India - time limit u/s 149 within which notice for reassessment can be issued in respect of "income in relation to any asset (including financial interest in any entity) located outside India, chargeable to tax, has escaped assessment - HELD THAT:- Section 149(1)(c) provides that no notice for reassessment can be issued if "more than sixteen years, have elapsed from the end of the relevant assessment year unless the income in relation to any asset (including financial interest in any entity) located outside India, chargeable to tax, has escaped assessment". Therefore, as long as sixteen years from the end of the relevant assessment year have not expired, the reassessment notice is in a case involving income from assets located outside India. As for the retrospective application of this provision, Explanation to Section 149 unambiguously provides that "the provisions of sub-sections (1) and (3), as amended by the Finance Act, 2012, shall also be applicable for any assessment year beginning on or before the 1st day of April, 2012". The amendment in Section 149(1), introduced with effect from 1st July 2012, is thus expressly stated to be retrospective in nature, and there is, in our humble understanding, there is no bar on the validity of the retrospectivity of the taxing statute as long as it is clearly specified to be so. there is no bar on the retrospectivity of a statute, though, in the absence of any express intention to that effect, it is presumed to be only prospective. The validity of a statute being retrospective in effect cannot, as such, be questioned in principle. In any event, it is not open to a forum like this Appellate Tribunal-much less a Commissioner (Appeals), to contest validity of a retrospective amendment in law. Once the statute clearly provides that the amended section 153(1) and (3), as amended by the Finance Act 2012, shall also be applicable to "any" assessment year beginning on or before 1st day of April 2012, it cannot be open to us to hold otherwise. To suggest that this amendment was intended to be prospective in effect would mean that the legislature, which undisputedly has the powers to make amendments with retrospective effect, intended to introduce section 149(1)(c) to take full effect from 1st April 2022 - an incongruity by any standard. The interpretation adopted by the learned Commissioner (Appeals) is thus clearly contrary to the specific words of the statute and unambiguous intent of the legislature. We, therefore, vacate the relief, quashing the reassessment proceedings as time-barred, granted by the learned Commissioner (Appeals) and restore the stand of the Assessing Officer on this point. Our humble understanding is that so far as escaped income from an asset outside India is concerned, any completed assessment can be reopened as long as sixteen years have not elapsed from the end of the relevant assessment year. Admittedly, that is not the position in the present case, as the relevant assessment year was completed on 31st March 2000, and the assessment was reopened on 27th March 2015. The plea of the Assessing Officer is thus indeed well taken. Thus respectfully following the views so taken by the coordinate bench in the case of DCIT vs. Dilip J Thakkar [2022 (3) TMI 1307 - ITAT MUMBAI], we uphold the plea of the appellant in the terms indicated above. The impugned order accordingly stands were taken and the matter stands restored to the file of the Assessing Officer for adjudication on merits. In the light of our observations.
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