Tax Tribunal Denies Appeals Over Non-Appealable Tax Recovery Letter; No Mistakes Found in Prior Decision.

The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) Pune dismissed all Miscellaneous Applications filed by the assessee regarding the maintainability of an appeal against a recovery letter issued by the Assessing Officer (AO). The ITAT upheld the decision of the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) [CIT (A)], confirming that the recovery letter did not constitute an appealable order under section 246A of the Income Tax Act. The ITAT found no apparent mistake in the prior order and applied the same reasoning to all similar cases, resulting in the dismissal of the assessee's appeals in M.A. Nos. 265 to 270/PUN/2023.

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Issues: Appeal against a recovery letter issued by the Assessing Officer, maintainability of appeal before the CIT (A) and ITAT, necessity of producing an appealable order under section 200A, dismissal of Miscellaneous Applications by ITAT.

Analysis:

The judgment by the Appellate Tribunal ITAT Pune involved the consideration of Miscellaneous Applications (M.A.) filed by the assessee, Kedar Infrastructure, against a common order of ITAT in ITA Nos. 228 to 233/PUN/2023. The main issue revolved around the maintainability of the appeal filed by the assessee before the ld. CIT (A) against a recovery letter issued by the Assessing Officer (AO). The ITAT heard the arguments of the ld. Authorized Representative (AR) of the assessee and the ld. Departmental Representative (DR) for the Revenue before perusing the records. The lead case was considered as M.A. No. 265/PUN/2023 arising from ITA No. 228/PUN/2023.

The assessee's Miscellaneous Application contended that as there was no provision for passing an appealable order under section 200A, it was impossible to produce such an order before the CIT (A) or the ITAT. The assessee argued that the requirement to produce such an order was inherently impossible. However, the ITAT clarified that it had not asked the assessee to do anything impossible. The ITAT upheld the decision of the ld. CIT (A) that the recovery letter issued by the AO was not an appealable order as per section 246A of the Income Tax Act.

The ITAT noted that the assessee had admitted to filing an appeal before the ld. CIT (A) against the letter issued by the AO, which was not a specified appealable order under section 246A. As there was no provision in the Income Tax Act to file an appeal against a recovery letter issued by the AO, the ITAT affirmed the decision of the ld. CIT (A) to dismiss the appeal of the assessee. The ITAT found no specific apparent mistake in the impugned order and subsequently dismissed the Miscellaneous Application of the assessee in M.A. No. 265/PUN/2023.

Regarding M.A. Nos. 266 to 270/PUN/2023, the ITAT determined that since the facts of these cases were similar to M.A. No. 265/PUN/2023, the decision in M.A. No. 265/PUN/2023 would apply mutatis mutandis to these appeals. Consequently, the grounds of appeal raised by the assessee in M.A. Nos. 266 to 270/PUN/2023 were also dismissed. In conclusion, all Miscellaneous Applications of the assessee were dismissed by the ITAT, and the order was pronounced in open court on 1st March, 2024.

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