ITAT allowed the assessee's appeal, holding that the assessee,...

ITAT allowed the assessee's appeal, holding that the assessee, an employee of a PSU/nationalized bank, is entitled to exemption on leave encashment under s. 10(10AA) of the IT Act as claimed in the return for AY 2020-21. Relying on a coordinate bench decision on identical facts, ITAT rejected the Revenue's contention that such employees cannot be treated at par with government employees for purposes of leave encashment exemption. ITAT also noted that the statutory exemption limit had remained unchanged since 2002 despite substantial upward revision in pay scales and that CBDT has recently enhanced the monetary ceiling to Rs. 25,00,000. Consequently, the leave encashment amount stands exempt and the assessment is to be modified accordingly.