TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2018 (4) TMI 1275
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....course of assessment proceedings, the Assessing Officer observed that as per the provisions of section 92E, the assessee is required to furnish Form No. 3CEB given details of its international transaction and as the assessee has failed to comply with the provisions of section 92E of the Act within the stipulated time, the assessee is liable for penalty proceedings u/s 271BA of the Act which were initiated separately. 3. During the course of penalty proceedings, the assessee submitted that in respect of its international transactions entered into with its associated enterprises, the assessee has obtained a report from a Chartered Accountant in Form No. 3CEB on 03.09.2012 and copy of the said report was required to be filed by the Assessin....
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....rnishing the audit Report. Therefore, audit report could not be filed electronically. Hence, there is a reasonable cause for not e-filing the audit report electronically though filed before the AO in course of assessment proceeding. It is held in various cases that obtaining the audit report to claim exemption/deduction wherever required by a section is a mandatory requirement but filing of the same is a procedural requirement and therefore, even when such report is filed before the completion of assessment, the requirement of the section as to the filing of the report should be taken as complied with. The ld. CIT(A) however was of the view that no reasonable cause has been made out by the assessee which prevented the assessee from filing t....
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....e Assessing Officer." 6. Further, our reference was drawn to the notification dated 1st May, 2013 whereby the CBDT has notified the Income tax (3rd Amendment) Rules 2013 whereby in Rule 12, the following proviso has been stated to be inserted with effect from 1st of April, 2013: "provided that where an assessee is required to furnish a report of audit u/s 44AB, 92E or 115JB of the Act, he shall furnish the same electronically." It was submitted that the said amendment has been brought-in with effect from 1st of April, 2013 relevant to assessment year 2013-14 and prior to that, there was no requirement to submit the audit report electronically and the assessee was under a bonafide belief that there is no such requirement to en....
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.... same. 10. Section 92E provides that every person who has entered into an international transactions during the previous year shall obtaine a report from an accountant and furnish such report on or before the specified date in the prescribed form dully signed and verified in the prescribed manner by such accountant and setting forth such particulars as may be prescribed. 11. The Income Tax Rule 12(2), prior to the amendment brought in by the Income tax (3rd Amendment) Rules, 2013, provides that: "(2) The return of income required to be furnished in Form SAHAJ (ITR- 1) or Form No. ITR-2 or Form No. ITR-3 or Form No. ITR-5 or Form No. ITR-6 shall not be accompanied by a statement showing the computation of the tax payable on th....
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.... position in law and the fact that the amendments have been brought in for the first time starting the year under consideration, the bonafide of the assessee cannot be doubted and we agree with the contention of the assessee that the said amendment in the procedural law has missed the attention of the assessee and there was a reasonable cause for such non-compliance by way of non- filing of audit report electronically. 13. In this regard, we refer to the decision of the Co-ordinate Bench in case of Open Technologies India Pvt. Ltd. vs. DCIT (2010) 29 CCH 0954 Del Trib wherein it was held as under:- "8. Now in the present case, we find that assessee has claimed that the said audit report was obtained much earlier than the due dat....