9911796707
TMI Blog2002 (8) TMI 99X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... th?" The assessee, in this case, is a film distributor. In his assessment for the relevant year 1978-79 under the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 (in short "the Act"), the valuation of the film called "Enga Pattan Sothu" was fixed on the basis of its original cost and the assessing authority determined the value of the films in stock at Rs. 18,77,501. An appeal, however, came to be filed wherein the appellate authority came to the conclusion that the valuation was excessive as the appellant had purchased the films long back and they were already exploited and as such there was bound to be a suitable decline in their commercial value. In this view, the appellate authority directed to value the films at the cost price and reduce that value by 50 perce ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , evolved new principle by holding that a fair market value of the films lying in stock would be represented by the actual collections at the re-run of such films and, therefore, the Tribunal directed that the actual collections made from these films on the next valuation date would be the potential market value of the films lying in stock and the figure of such collection should be substituted for valuation directed by the Commissioner. The assessee questions this method of valuation and the findings of the Tribunal before us by way of reference of the question of law which we have quoted above. Mr. Janarthana Raja, firstly questions the judgment of the Tribunal on the ground that the Tribunal while directing to take into consideration ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Commissioner of Income-tax. The main argument of learned counsel, however, was that under section 2(q), the valuation date was defined as under: " 'valuation date', in relation to any year for which an assessment is to be made under this Act, means the last day of the previous year as defined in section 3 of the Income-tax Act, if an assessment were to be made under that Act for that year." Learned counsel points out that in this case, the assessment year was 1978-79 and, therefore, the valuation date would be the last date of the previous year of this assessment year that would be 1977-78. Learned counsel further contends that because of the order of the Tribunal now the value to be decided would be with relevance to the next valuation d ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d, therefore, it must be said that it has erred in directing to evaluate the films with reference to the next valuation date. Again, it will have to be said that the test of actual collections on the next valuation date may not be a correct relevant factor for deciding as to what its value was on the valuation date which undoubtedly is the only relevant date for evaluating an asset. It could be that a film on the last date of the previous year was not all that popular may suddenly gain popularity and become a box-office hit on account of some subsequent events such as death of the actor/actress who played the lead role in the film, nomination of the film for some international awards, the film subsequently bagging some awards in the categor ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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