1987 (9) TMI 108

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....n due course, the WTO called upon the assessee to show cause why penalty should not be imposed. The reason put forth by the assessee was that the assessee was taking steps to pay off the wealth-tax demand for earlier years and hence for this year, no payments could be made and further that the assessee had no liquid resouorces. The WTO did not agree and the imposed a penalty of Rs. 12,498 for default at the rate of 2 per cent for every month, i.e., for 47 months. 2. The assessee appealed and submitted before the Commissioner (Appeals) that his liquid resources were negligible and further that the failure to pay the self-assessment tax was because of the difficult financial situation. It was also stated that the assessee's wealth consiste....

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....ng in default. In this letter, he had stated that he was fully aware of the oddity of what he was saying but since it was a fact, he requested permission to submit the same and had sought for payment of the arrears in instalments. For all these reasons, the learned counsel submitted that the order of the Commissioner (Appeals) should not interfered with. 4. We have considered the rival submissions. The Madras High Court in the case of CIT v. Mysore Fertiliser Co. 145 ITR 91, [1984] which was a as relating to levy of penalty for non-payment of self-assessment tax, had observed at pages 95 and 96 as under :- "The learned standing counsel submitted that the mere want of liquid resources in the possession of the assessee or the fact that ....

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....hether the Tribunal's findings are correct or incorrect, but whether the Tribunal's finding can be regarded as being based on an entirely unreasonable view of the facts. Having given our best consideration to the facts found in this case and the decision rendered by the Tribunal, we cannot bring ourselves to hold that the ultimate conclusion of the Tribunal is based on any unreasonable view of the facts." We now have the order of the Commissioner (Appeals) before us who had accepted the plea that lack of liquid resources was responsible for the non-payment of the self-assessment tax. We find as a fact that between 1982 and 1985, the assessee had liquidated wealth-tax arrears to the extent of Rs. 1,45,000 or in a period of three years,....