Court upholds Income Tax Tribunal's decision on Section 80HH & 80I/80IA for LPG gas bottling.

The court dismissed the appeal challenging the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal's order, affirming the applicability of Section 80HH and 80I/80IA of the Income Tax Act to the activity of bottling LPG gas. The court relied on a previous ruling and held that the issue was conclusively settled, refusing to entertain the Revenue's question as it did not raise any substantial question of law. The appeal was dismissed without costs, maintaining consistency with the court's earlier decisions on the matter.

---

---

Issues involved:
Challenge to the order of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal regarding the applicability of Section 80HH/80I/80IA of the Income Tax Act, 1961 to the activity of bottling LPG gas.

Analysis:

1. The appeal under Section 260A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 challenges the order of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (Tribunal) dated 30th April 2013 concerning the Assessment Year 1999-2000. The Appellate Revenue raised the question of whether the activity of bottling LPG gas into cylinders qualifies as production or manufacturing activity for the purposes of Section 80HH/80I/80IA of the Act.

2. The Tribunal's order allowed the Respondent-Assessee's appeal, granting them the benefit of Section 80HH and 80I/80IA of the Act for their LPG Bottling Plants. This decision was based on a previous ruling of the court dated 7th March 2013 in a related case. The counsel for the Revenue acknowledged that the issue had been settled against them by the court's earlier decision in a similar case involving Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited.

3. The counsel for the Revenue conceded that the issue was conclusively settled against them by the court's previous judgment. Consequently, the question posed by the Revenue did not give rise to any substantial question of law and was not entertained by the court.

4. As the matter was considered settled based on the earlier decision, the court dismissed the appeal without any order as to costs. The judgment reaffirmed the applicability of Section 80HH and 80I/80IA of the Income Tax Act to the activity of bottling LPG gas, as established by the court's previous rulings.

---