TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2017 (12) TMI 1064
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....er referred to as the Act ), by which the petitioner's application for waiver of interest payable under Sections 234A, 234B and 234C of the Act for the assessment years 1997-1998 and 1998-1999 was rejected. The petitioner is an assessee on the file of the Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax for Circular I, Salem and has been assessed in the status of HUF for nearly two decades. The petitioner's income is mainly from the property, sago commission income and income from a Trust. For the assessment years 1997-1998 and 1998-1999, the petitioner filed his return of income on 20.12.2000 which was processed and the petitioner was assessed to tax and interest was levied under Sections 234A, 234B and 234C for both the assessment years. Hence t....
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....be seen as to whether the respondent was right in rejecting the petitioner's application for waiver of interest. The power for waiver granted to the respondent emanates from the guidelines framed by the Central Board in the form of a circular. The circular which held the field during the relevant time was Circular No.400 and in order to be entitled to the benefit of the Circular, the assessee should fall within one of the conditions stipulated therein. So far as the waiver of interest under Section 234A of the Act, Clauses 2(a) and 2(e) of the Board Circular No.400 have to be fulfilled which are as follows: "Clause 2(a) - where the accounts and documents have been seized u/s. 132 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 and because of the s....
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....ut has filed after deduction by the Assessing Officer. This appears to be the stand in the counter affidavit as well. The assessment years in question are 1997-1998 and 1998-1999. Record of the proceedings shows that the petitioner had not filed return of income for the assessment years 1994-1995, 1995-1996 and 1996-1997 and the explanation given is that he had no taxable income during the said years. Further, the property continued to remain as HUF property i.e. it remained undivided and there were serious civil disputes between the family members and to establish the same the petitioner had filed the copy of the plaint in O.S.No.200 of 2014 on the file of the Sub Court, Salem, filed for partition in which the petitioner was the 6th defend....
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.... 133A of the Act, it was held as follows: "6.In the instant case, there was a survey operation conducted under Section 133A of the Act in the assessee's premises and a statement was recorded from one of the partner. Assuming there were discrepancies and irregularities in the books of accounts maintained by the assessee, an offer of additional income for the respective assessment years was made by the partner of the firm. But, such statement, in view of the scope and ambit of the materials collected during the course of survey action under Section 133A shall not have any evidentiary value, as rightly held by the Commissioner and the Tribunal, since such statement was not attached to the provisions of Section 133A of the Act. It ....
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....ode Rubber Produce Co. Ltd. v. State of Kerala (1973) 91 I.T.R. 18; (ii) In contradistinction to the power under section 133A, section 132(4) of the Income-tax Act enables the authorised officer to examine a person on oath and any statement made by such person during such examination can also be used in evidence under the Income-tax Act. On the other hand, whatever statement is recorded under section 133A of the Income-tax Act it is not given any evidentiary value obviously for the reason that the officer is not authorised to administer oath and to take any sworn statement which alone has evidentiary value as contemplated under law, vide Paul Mathews and Sons v. Commissioner of Income-tax (2003) 263 I.T.R. 101 (Ker); 9. In the l....
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....or waiver of interest under Section 234 of the Act, it has to be seen as to whether the petitioner would be entitled for waiver under Section 234B and 234C of the Act. 10. Learned counsel appearing for the revenue would strongly contend that there are separate conditions to be adhered to by the assessee to be entitled for waiver of interest under Sections 234B and 234C of the Act. As pointed out earlier, the petitioner's case was that he had no taxable income. This plea had not been controverted by the revenue and this is evident from the conduct of the assessee in not filing returns for earlier three years, i.e. 1994-1995 to 1996-1997. That apart, the petitioner has been able to establish that the property in question still remains ....