TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2018 (10) TMI 736
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....the block period was determined at Rs. 27,77,98,314/-. The ld.AO has made addition on ten counts. On further appeal, almost all the additions were deleted except an addition of Rs. 7,70,960/- and Rs. 2,39,475/-. The facts with regard to these additions are that during the course of survey at Bhavnagar factory premises it came to the notice of survey team that the assessee was having excess stock of lime stone of 6704 MT having value of Rs. 7,70,960/-. This value of excess stock was added to the total income and addition stand confirmed upto the level of the Tribunal. Similarly, during the course of search at the residential premises of cashier, Shri Manilal B. Patel a file inventorised as annexure A/2 was found and seized. The file contained loose paper-sheets. In the loose paper names of Shri Mahendra Fadia and other associate persons and employees were mentioned. In the statement of Shri Manibhai B. Patel, he disclosed that he was writing daily cash book of the company and noting in that pages pertained to advances given by him on behalf of the company for cash expenses to be incurred by the associates and employees. Thus, on the basis of that evidence, unexplained cash at Rs. 2,....
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....n if- (i) such person has furnished a return under cl. (a) of s. 158BC; (ii) the tax payable on the basis of such return has been paid or, if the assets seized consist money, the assessee offers the money so seized to be adjusted against the tax payable; (iii) evidence of tax paid is furnished along with the return; and (iv) an appeal is not filed against the assessment of that part of income which is shown in the return : Provided further that the provisions of the preceding proviso shall not apply where the undisclosed income determined by the AO is in excess of the income shown in the return and in such cases the penalty shall be imposed on that portion of undisclosed income determined which is in excess of the amount of undisclosed income shown in the return." 8. Upon perusal of sub-s. (2) of s. 158BFA of the Act, it would emerge that the AO or CIT(A) has the power to impose penalty in course of any proceedings under the said chapter, which penalty would range between 100 per cent to 300 per cent of the tax leviable on the undisclosed income determined by the AO under cl. (c) of s. 158BC of the Act. 8.1 Proviso to sub-s. (2) of s. 158BFA of the Act, however....
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....to impose the penalty will be justified in refusing to imposed penalty, when there is a technical or venial breach of the provisions of the act or where the breach flows from abona fide belief that the offender is not liable to act in the manner prescribed by the statute." 9. The contention of the counsel for the Revenue that only upon satisfaction of the conditions contained in proviso to sub-s. (2) that the assessee, in case of the block assessment can be spared of the penalty cannot be accepted. It is, of course, true that upon satisfying such conditions, the assessee would get immunity from penalty. Nevertheless, this is not a thing as to suggest that in no other case, or on no other ground, the AO may at his discretion, not impose penalty the moment additions under cl. (c) of s. 158BC are sustained. In other words, we are unable to hold that the penalty under s. 158BFA(2) is mandatory in nature. 9.1 It is true that s. 273B of the Act which provides that penalty shall not be imposed in certain cases on the assessee proving that there was reasonable cause for failure to pay tax refers to several provisions such as ss. 271, 271A, etc., makes no mention of s. 158BFA(2). This....
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....the course of survey proceeding, the stock taking and verification taken up late evening at around 7.00 p.m. and was completed within a total period of about 2 to 3 hours So that the time allotted for stock taking and verification was very short and the exercise was undertaken at the time when the people put on the job were totally exhausted. b. Soda ash plant is spread out in total area of about 480 acres of land wherein raw material storage area would be about 100 acres, which is very huge and the distance between limestone and salt would be about 2 Kms. Area of finished goods godown, where Soda Ash is stored is about 34,000 Sq.Yd. These figures are only to give an idea of the vastness and the size and therefore the time constraints, which can substantially, the care and precision in the stock taking exercise. c. The raw materials are mostly bulky in nature, which are stored in open area The quantities have been huge and the same has been physically verified by adopting the "measurement method", i.e. the size of the heap in length, width and height is measured by a measurement tape and then the calculations are made by applying factor 10 arrive at an estimate of the quantit....