TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2019 (4) TMI 1195
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....rcle-4(1), Visakhapatnam. In response thereto, the assessee-company filed its return of net wealth on 01/07/2010 declaring net wealth at NIL and claimed exemption of Rs. 3,39,63,215/-. The case of the assessee was selected for scrutiny and after following due process, Assessing Officer has disallowed the exemption claimed by the assessee and added to the taxable wealth of Rs. 4,96,687/-. 3. On appeal before the ld. CWT(A), the assessee has filed a detailed submission, which is reproduced as under:- "1. Nature of land as per land records: It is an undisputed fact that the impugned land is an agricultural land as per land records. The certificates dt.1710-2011 issued by the Tahsildar endorses the fact that the impugned land is agricultural land' as per the land records of the State Government. The copies of the certificates issued by the Tahsildar, Visakhapatnam Rural are filed in the paper book. 2. Relevancy of agricultural operations: Once, the impugned land is held to be an 'agricultural land' as per records of the Government, it is immaterial whether agricultural operations were actually carried out or not. In this regard, the appellant places rel....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....undaries of the site right since 01-05-2004 is not disputed. Further, w.r.t land at Kommadi, the report clearly states that there are agricultural operations. Further, in a similar case, the learned CIT(A)-2, Guntur held that in the absence of any contradicting material or report gathered by the assessing officer the validity of the report issued by Remote Sensing Instruments shall not be questioned and the contents of the report can be relied upon for ascertaining the nature of the land. A copy of order of the learned CIT(A)-2,Guntur is enclosed herewith. In view of the above, the appellant prays that the assessing officer may be directed to delete the addition made to Net Worth by treating the impugned land as urban land. 5. A remand report was called for to examine the additional evidence in the form of "satellite images and reports" submitted by the assessee and the Remand report was reproduced hereunder: 6. Remand Report: In order to verify the veracity of appellant's claim, information was called for from General Manager, Remote Sensing Instruments, Hyderabad and the General Manager Remote Sensing Instruments, Hyderabad informed that the satelli....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....y of the report issued by the Remote Sensing Instruments shall not be questioned and the contents of the report can be relied upon for ascertaining the nature of the land. A copy of the order of the learned CIT(A)-2, Guntur is enclosed herewith. In view of the above, the appellant prays that the AO may be directed to delete the addition made to net wealth by treating the impugned lands as urban land." 4. The ld. CWT(A) by considering the detailed submission and also the comments on remand report has held that the lands in question are exempted for wealth tax under section 2(ea) of the Act, hence, not chargeable to wealth tax. The relevant portion of the ld. CWT(A)'s order is extracted as under:- "8. I have considered the submissions made by the assessee and have also gone through the assessment order, remand report and rebuttal. Ground No.1 and 5 are common in nature and do not need any adjudication. Ground No. 2, 3 and 4 relate to disallowance of exemptions claimed of Rs. 3,39,63,215/- by the assessee on lands at Pothinamallayyapalem and Kommadi by treating them as urban lands. In this case, the assessee is ho/ding the agricult....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....er any law for time being in force in the area in which such land is situated or the land occupied by any building which has been constructed with the approval of the appropriate authority or any unused land held by the acquisition by him or any land held by the assessee as stock in trade for a period often years from the date of its acquisition by him". In this case the Assessing Officer has not brought on record any evidence to show that the lands are converted. On similar facts, Hon'ble Delhi High Court in the case of commissioner of Wealth tax vs D.C.M. Ltd (2007) (290 ITR 615(Delhi), Hon'ble Punjab and Haryana Hugh Court in the case of commissioner of wealth tax Vs Lt.Gen(Rtd.) R.K Mehta reported (201 0)(284 CTR 205), Hon 'ble High Court of Madras in the case of Commissioner of wealth tax vs. E. Udayakumar 284 ITR 511 held that the urban land on which construction of building is not permissible and no permission till date had been granted by the appropriate authority, the lands are excluded from the definition of urban land chargeable to wealth tax. It is also held that agricultural lands situated within the limits of city corporation on which no ....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....n agricultural lands, the Tahsildar Visakhapatnam has submitted report on 25.03.2015 on the basis of report submitted by the field staff dated 20.03.2015, but not made any personal inspection on his own on the impugned lands. The report of the field staff was also not furnished. The Ld.Tahsildar expressed opinion of non agricultural land since the land particulars are recorded in sq.yds., but not on any factual findings. The report of the Ld. Tahsildar cannot be taken as factual report and suffering from many defects such as not making any personal inspection of the land by himself and not conducting any enquiries and the reply is based on field inspection report of the staff. The relevant A.Ys are 2008-09 to 2012-13 relating to the F.Y. 2007-08 to 2011-12, but inspection was conducted on 20.03.2015 and the Tahsildar has not given any basis for coming to conclusion that no agricultural activities were conducted in the said lands. It appears that neither the Ld.Tahsildar nor the Field staff have conducted any enquiries regarding the factual position. Since the adangal is a revenue record and the assessee has filed affidavits from the tenant supported by Remote sensing instr....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....the approval of the appropriate authority or any unused land held by the assessee for industrial purposes for a period of two years from the date of its acquisition by him or any land held by the assessee as stock-in-trade for a period of ten years from the date of its acquisition by him." 7. In the instant case, the AO has not brought on record any evidence to show that the lands are converted. Once the lands are not converted as non agricultural lands, construction of building is not permissible. Hon‟ble Delhi High Court in the case of Commissioner of Wealth Tax Vs. D.C.M.Ltd. (2007) [290 ITR 615(Delhi)] held that the urban land on which construction of building is not permissible and no permission till date had been granted by the appropriate authority, the lands are excluded from the definition of urban land chargeable to wealth tax. For ready reference, we extract the relevant paragraph of the order of the Delhi High Court in para No.6 which reads as under: "6. The provisions underlined, italicised in print, by us in the above provision were inserted by the Finance Act, 1993 and made effective from 1st April, 1994. We are dealing with the relevant asses....