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1978 (2) TMI 32

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..... se, Rajahmundry. For the assessment year 1971-72 the assessee claimed a deduction of 20% of the income under s. 80QQ of the Act on the sales, printing and publication of books. The ITO disallowed the deduction claimed on the ground that the books published by him are not of the type of books which are entitled to deduction under the provisions of s. 80QQ. That view of the ITO was not upheld by the AAC. Hence, the revenue preferred an appeal to the Tribunal and the Tribunal, on the ground that the books printed and published by the assessee were not of enduring value, reversed the order of the AAC and restored the order of the ITO. The assessee, therefore, had the case referred to this court under s. 256(1) of the I.T. Act. The short questio .....

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..... 3) are referable only to newspapers, journals, magazines, diaries, brochures, tracts, pamphlets and not to books. The books printed are not short printed works of a few leaves stitched together to be included in the category of brochures, nor do they relate to any particular topic or treatise or a printed discourse to be classified as coming within the expression " tract ". The fact that the legislature has used the words " other publications of a similar nature, by whatever name called " will not by itself take the guide books within the sweep of other publications of similar nature. Books are placed in a special category in s. 80QQ. All that is required for deduction under s. 80QQ is that the assessee must have derived profits and gains f .....

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..... inds of books. In view of the fact that certain other categories which are defined in dictionaries are not included in the expression " books ", it is clear that the word " books " has a definite meaning. The guide books are printed and published by the assessee for the benefit of the students and as may be seen from the facts stated in the order of the Tribunal there are several reprints of these guides. These guides are printed for the subjects like Mathematics, English, Science, Telugu, etc. The question is not whether the books printed are of enduring value, but whether they answer the description of " books ". In re Tomline's Will Trusts : Pretyman v. Pretyman [1931] 1 Ch 521 (Ch D) Maugham J. held that manuscripts would also come with .....

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..... f s. 80QQ, as understood by the ITO, that the object of granting concession under the provision was to encourage a publication of books in India which would replace the books which have been imported from foreign countries. The question is also not whether these books are useful for a period of four or five years, but whether they are, in fact, books. The question how long they are useful is not relevant. Having regard to the opinion expressed by this court earlier in Govindaswamy Binding Works v. State of Andhra Pradesh [1972] 29 STC 219 (AP), we hold that the guide books published by the assessee come within the meaning of the term " books " in s. 80QQ of the Act. We, therefore, answer the question in the affirmative and in favour of the .....

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