The ITAT affirmed the appellate authority's order, dismissing...

The ITAT affirmed the appellate authority's order, dismissing the revenue's grounds and holding that losses on settlement of forward contracts constituted allowable business losses rather than speculative losses. The tribunal found the forward contracts were bona fide hedges of confirmed export receivables (Japanese Yen) incidental to the assessee's core export business, not foreign-currency trading, and noted prior years' treatment of exchange gains as business receipts. Applying the proviso to clause (a) of s.43(5) of the Act and following controlling judicial precedent, the ITAT held the hedging losses eligible for set-off against business income and confirmed relief granted to the assessee.

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