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2017 (11) TMI 1138

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..... peak credit as has been mentioned in the respective assessment order. It is noted that while adjudicating the issue, the Ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeal) sought remand report from the Ld. Assessing Officer and the same was duly considered. Admittedly, the necessary documents just like purchase bills, sale invoices, process flow chart, contract agreements, inspection notes inward and outward register of the material and the disputed purchases were debited to sewage treatment plant and the authenticity of the documents was not disputed by the Ld. Assessing Officer. Thus, we find no infirmity in the conclusion of the Ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeal), because, the assessee has proved consumption, consequently, this ground of the Revenue is without any merit, therefore, dismissed. Allow deduction u/s 80IA of the Act in respect of addition made u/s 69C - Crux of arguments on behalf of the assessee is that any disallowance of purchases made in the assessment order would increase in profit and gains eligible business as a result of which the assessee would be entitle to claim the increased deduction u/s 80IA(4)- Held that:- We find that finally, the Assessing Officer was .....

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..... , made in miscellaneous application. In the principal order the Tribunal has recorded the following findings : 8.3. We have considered the rival submissions and perused the facts on record. In our opinion, the action of the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals) confirming 25 per cent. of the amounts claimed is fair and reasonable and no interference is called for. The Commis sioner of Income-tax (Appeals) has gone through the purchase prices of the raw material prevalent at the time and rightly came to the con clusion that the disallowance to the extent of 25 per cent. was called for. It is established that the parties were not traceable ; they opened the bank accounts in which the cheques were credited but soon thereafter the amounts were withdrawn by bearer cheques. That fairly leads to the conclusion that these parties were perhaps creation of the assessee itself for the purpose of banking purchases into books of account because the purchases with bills were not feasible. Thus, the abovenoted parties become conduit pipes between the assessee-firm and the sellers of the raw materials. Under the circumstances, it was not impossible for the assessee to inflate the prices of .....

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..... er than the persons, who had issued the bills for such goods. The purchases were shown to have been made by making payments, through banking channel and thus the apparent sellers were not genuine or were acting as conduit between the assessee and the actual seller. In such a situation, the conclusion drawn by the Ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeal) as well as by the Tribunal was affirmed. Hon'ble Apex Court in Kachwala Gems vs JCIT (2007) 158 taxman 71 observed that an element of guesswork is inevitable in cases, where estimation of income is warranted. 2.2. The Hon'ble Gujarat High Court in CIT vs Bholanath Poly Fab. Pvt. Ltd. (2013) 355 ITR 290 (Guj.) held/observed as under:- 5. Having come to such a conclusion, however, the Tribunal was of the opinion that the purchases may have been made from bogus parties, nevertheless, the purchases themselves were not bogus. The Tribunal adverted to the facts and data on record and came to the conclusion that the entire quantity of opening stock, purchases and the quantity manufactured during the year under consideration were sold by the assessee. Therefore, the purchases of the entire 1,02,514 metres of cloth were sold .....

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..... njay Oil Cake [2009] 316 ITR 274 (Guj) has held that whether an estimate should be at a particular sum or at a different sum can never be a question of law. 7. The apex court in the case of Kachwala Gems [2007] 288 ITR 10 (SC) has held that in a best judgment assessment there is always a certain degree of guess work. No doubt, the authorities should try to make an honest and fair estimate of the income even in a best judgment assessment and should not act totally arbitrarily but there is necessarily some amount of guess work involved in a best judgment assessment. 8. Examining the facts of the present case in the light of the aforesaid decisions, the decision of the Tribunal, being based on an estimate, does not give rise to any question of law so as to warrant interference. 9. In so far as the proposed questions (C), (D) and (E) are concerned, the same are similar to the proposed question (A) wherein the Tribunal has restricted the addition to 25 per cent. on similar facts. In the circumstances, for the reasons stated hereinabove, the said grounds of appeal do not give rise to any question of law. 10. As regards the proposed question (B) which pertains to t .....

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..... arrived at by the Tribunal is based on concurrent findings of fact recorded by the Commissioner (Appeals) as well as the Tribunal. It is not the case of the Revenue that the Tribunal has taken into account any irrelevant material or that any relevant material has not been taken into consideration. In the absence of any material to the contrary being pointed out on behalf of the Revenue, the impugned order being based on concurrent findings of fact recorded by the Tribunal upon appreciation of the evidence on record, does not give rise to any question of law in so far as the present ground of appeal is concerned. 14. In relation to the proposed question (F) which relates to the deletion of addition of ₹ 44,54,426 made on account of purchase of crane and allowing depreciation on the same, the Assessing Officer observed that the assessee had purchased a crawler crane for an amount of ₹ 24,61,000 excluding the cost of spare parts of ₹ 14,98,490. The Assessing Officer after examining the evidence on record and considering the explanation given by the assessee, made addition of ₹ 44,54,426, ₹ 39,59,490 being the purchase price of the crane along with i .....

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..... g the deprecation in respect of the same also would not arise. When the assessee had conclusively proved the purchase and existence of the crane, and had not debited the expenses to the profit and loss account, no addition could have been made in respect of the purchase price nor could have depreciation been disallowed in respect thereof. The Tribunal was, therefore, justified in deleting the addition as well as disallowance of depreciation. 17. In the light of the aforesaid discussion, it is not possible to state that there is any legal infirmity in the impugned order made by the Tribunal so as to warrant interference. In the absence of any question of law, much less, a substantial question of law, the appeal is dismissed. 2.4. The Hon'ble jurisdictional High Court in the case of CIT vs Ashish International Ltd. (ITA No.4299/2009) order dated 22/02/2011, observed/held as under:- The question raised in this appeal is, whether the Tribunal was justified in deleting the addition on account of bogus purchases allegedly made by the assessee from M/s. Thakkar Agro Industrial Chem Supplies P. Ltd. According to the revenue, the Director of M/s. Thakkar Agro Industrial Chem S .....

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..... is well a reasoned order taking into account all the facts before concluding that the purchases of ₹ 1.33 crores was not bogus. No fault can be found with the order dated April 30, 2010, of the Tribunal. 2.6. The Hon'ble Gujarat High Court in CIT vs M.K. Brothers (163 ITR 249) held/observed as under:- Being aggrieved by the aforesaid order, the assessee went in second appeal before the Tribunal. It was urged on behalf of the assessee that the transactions in question were normal business transactions and the assessee had made payments by cheques. The parties did not come forward and if they did not come, the assessee should not suffer. However, on behalf of the Revenue, it was urged that detailed inquiries were made and thereafter the conclusion was reached. The Tribunal found that there was no evidence anywhere that these concerns gave bogus vouchers to the assessee. No doubt, there were certain doubtful features, but the evidence was not adequate to conclude that the purchases made by the assessee from the said parties were bogus. The Tribunal accordingly, did not sustain the addition retained by the Appellate Assistant Commissioner. Hence, at the instance .....

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..... 2009 as per the statement submitted on record. After considering the assessment order and the submissions made by the assessee, FAA held that the transactions were supported by proper documentary evidences, that the payments made to the parties by the assessee were in confirmation with bank certificate, that the suppliers was shown as default under the Maharashtra VAT Act could not be sufficient evidences to hold that the purchases were non-genuine, that the AO had not brought any independent and reliable evidences against the assessee to prove the nongenuineness of the purchases, that there was no evidence regarding cash received back from the suppliers. Finally, he deleted the addition made by the AO . 2.3.Before us, Departmental Representative argued that both the suppliers were not produced before the AO by the assessee, that one of them was declared hawala dealer by VAT department, that because of cheque payment made to the supplier transaction cannot be taken as genuine. He relied upon the order of the G Bench of Mumbai Tribunal delivered in the case of Western Extrusion Industries. (ITA/6579/Mum/2010-dated 13.11.2013). Authrorised representative (AR) contended that .....

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..... g various decisions decided the issue in favour of the Revenue and the Hon'ble Apex Court dismissed the SLP vide order dated 16/01/2017 (SLP No.(c) 769 of 2017). We find that in that case, during search proceedings, certain blank signed cheque books and vouchers were found and thus the purchases made from these concerns, were treated as bogus by the Assessing Officer. 2.9. The Hon'ble Gujarat High Court in N.K. Industries Ltd. vs DCIT (IT Appeal No.240, 261, 242, 260 and 241 of 2003), vide order dated 20/06/2016 considered the decision of the Tribunal and various judicial decisions including the case of Vijay Proteins and Sanjay Oilcakes Industries ltd., M/s Woolen Carpet Factory vs ITAT (2002) 178 CTR 420 (Raj.), the Tribunal was held to be justified in deciding the case against the assessee. The Hon'ble Apex Court confirmed the decision of the High Court for adding the entire income on account of bogus purchases (SLP (C) No.s 769 of 2017, order dated 16/01/2017. 2.10. In such type of cases, broadly, the Ld. Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeal) as well as this Tribunal has followed the decisions from Hon'ble Gujarat High Court in the case of Simit P. Seth (201 .....

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..... earned from the activities of the eligible business for claiming deduction u/s 80IA of the Act. The Ld. DR advanced arguments, which is identical to the ground raised. On the other hand, the ld. counsel for the assessee, defended the impugned order. 3.1. We have considered the rival submissions and perused the material available on record. The issue pertains to allowability of deduction u/s 80IA(4) of the Act on profit and gains of eligible business as a result of disallowance of purchases. The crux of arguments on behalf of the assessee is that any disallowance of purchases made in the assessment order would increase in profit and gains eligible business as a result of which the assessee would be entitle to claim the increased deduction u/s 80IA(4) of the Act. Plea was also raised that the purchases made from the disputed suppliers were debited to sewage treatment plant and as such had been claimed as expense in respect of STP unit. However, we find that finally, the Assessing Officer was directed to re-compute the profit and gains of STP Unit. We may add here that considering the language of section 80IA, the Ld. Assessing Officer is directed to examine the factual matrix and .....

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