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2024 (3) TMI 1019 - HC - Income TaxReopening of assessment u/s 147 - Reasons to believe - as alleged there is net reduction of income through misuse of CCM - reliance on information recieved from Ahmedabad Investigation Directorate [Directorate] - Assessee pointed difference and disparity between the information provided to the petitioner and the reasons as existing on the record of the responde - HELD THAT:- Information which triggered the initiation of action was based upon an information received via email from the Ahmedabad Investigation Directorate [Directorate]. The aforesaid report alluded to certain conclusions prima facie arrived at by that Directorate on analysis of data received from the National Stock Exchange, and on the basis whereof the Directorate opined that the Client Code Modification [CCM] system had been used as a tool for tax evasion. Upon receipt of the aforesaid report, the AO while apprising the petitioner of the reasons which warranted re-assessment being undertaken, referred to the report of the Directorate and alluded to an ‘orchestrated misuse’ of CCM with a motive to evade tax. It also referred to a coordinated limited purpose survey undertaken under Section 133A of the Act at the premises of twelve brokers as well as their clients across India in March 2015. The recordal of facts and reasons in the proforma would clearly indicate that information was identically transcribed on the record of the respondent as well. In our considered opinion, the minor discrepancies in the language employed by the respondent, and as it stands reflected in the reasons provided to the petitioner, and that which exists on the record, would clearly not justify us interfering with the impugned notice and the order impugned for reasons which follow. As would be evident from a perusal of the reasons which were supplied to the petitioner, there is a clear and unequivocal expression of opinion of the AO with respect to the material on the basis of which reassessment was sought to be commenced. The proforma also alludes to the same material and record. There is thus no variation or difference in the foundational material on the basis of which the AO came to form the opinion that income has likely to have escaped assessment. What needs to be emphasized while dealing with challenges like the present is that we would not countenance two separate and distinct set of reasons being maintained by the respondent for commencement of reassessment. The reasons which are conveyed to the assessee must be the same as those which exist on the record. A minor variation in the language in which that information is conveyed to the assessee would not constitute a justifiable ground to interfere with the reassessment power. Decided against assessee.
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