Law:

Section:

Section 234A, read with section 132, of the Income-tax Act, 1961 - Interest, chargeable as - Assessment years 1993-94 and 1994-95 - Search was conducted - Books of account and documents of relevant years were seized - Inspections were permitted and photocopy was allowed to petitioner - However, petitioner was allowed to take photocopies for an hour or two daily which caused delay and photocopying could be completed beyond dates of filing of return - There was negligence on part of petitioner thereafter as evident from fact that return was filed 2 to 4 months after audit was completed - Interest was imposed for late filing of return - Whether petitioner will be entitled to waiver of interest to extent of 30 per cent - Held, yes [Partly in favour of assessee] FACTS The petitioner assessee was searched under section 132 on 24th/25th August, 1993, (i.e., before the due dates for filing returns) and books of account and documents were seized. These included books of account and documents pertaining to the two assessment years in question. The account books, documents and material pertaining to 28 related parties were also seized at the time of the said search. Accounts in the case of the petitioner and some other parties had to be audited and an audit report had to be submitted under section 44AB along with the income tax returns. For these two assessment years, the due date of filing of the return of income was 31-12-1993 and 30-11-1994. The returns of income in fact were filed on 18-5-1995 and 28-7-1995. The total interest charged under section 234A for two assessment years were Rs. 6,59,946 and Rs. 50,768 respectively. The Chief Commissioner, while rejecting the request for waiver of interest, has recorded that the assessee was given sufficient opportunity to take photocopies of the seized materials in the first week of September, 1993. He held that the delay in filing the returns of income was attributable to the assessee. It was a contention of the petitioner that they were unable to complete the photocopying as they were not permitted and allowed to operate the photocopying machine throughout the working hours and that the photocopying machine was allowed to…

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/digixyei/sldsystempk.com/view/master-layout/view_case.php on line 492