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2019 (10) TMI 1197

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....of share capital/share premium as the assessee has failed to prove the identity, creditworthiness and genuineness of the transaction. 3. Brief facts qua the issue are that the assessee company filed its return of income for the A.Y 2012-13, on 25-09-2012, declaring total income at Rs. Nil. The assessee's return of income was selected for scrutiny u/s. 143(2) of the Act. During the scrutiny proceedings, the Assessing Officer noticed that the assessee company had raised a fresh share capital including security premium of Rs. 2,97,75,000/- by issuing 11,91,000 number of shares at a face value of Rs. 10/- each with a premium of Rs. 15/-, per share. In order to look into the three limbs of basic parameters i.e., identity and creditworthiness of the share applicants as well as genuineness of the transactions, summon u/s 131 of the Act was issued to the Director of the assessee company on 16/02/2015, requesting for personal appearance on 23/02/2015. At the same time, it was also requested to produce all the Directors of the subscribers companies. But there was no response on the part of the assessee company. Neither the Director of the assessee company appeared nor any Director of any ....

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....e ld. CIT(A), who has confirmed the impugned addition made by the Assessing Officer. Aggrieved by the order of the ld CIT(A), the Assessee is in appeal before us. 5. The ld. Counsel for the assessee has reiterated the submissions made before the authorities below. On the other hand, Ld. DR for the Revenue submitted before us that assessee company, is a zero asset base company which has raised share capital by issuing its shares to primarily different private limited companies against a high premium of Rs. 190/-, which is nothing but to introduce the unaccounted money without paying taxes. In this instant case, the assessee company failed to discharge its onus, about the identity, creditworthiness and genuineness of the subscriber companies. Apart from this, ld DR has primarily reiterated the stand taken by the Assessing Officer which we have already noted in our earlier para and the same is not being repeated for the sake of brevity. 6. We have heard both the parties and perused the material available on record, we note that according to section 68 of the Income Tax Act, where any sum is found credited in the books of an assessee maintained for any previous year, and the asse....

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....s vide Board Resolution dated 24.03.2012 and accordingly Form No. 2 and Form No. 5 were filed with the ROC. (Copy of Form 2 and Form 5 is enclosed at page 15-23 of Paper book). The list of allottees to whom 11,91,000 Equity Shares of a Face Value of Rs. 10/- per share at a premium of Rs. 15/- per share were allotted are as under: Sl. No. Name of Allottee No. of Shares Allotted Share Capital @ Rs. 10 per Share Share Premium @ Rs. 15 per Share Total 1. Startrade Vyapaar Ltd 55000 5,50,000/- 8,25,000/- 13,75,000 2. Kamayani Commotrade Pvt. Ltd. 376000 37,60,000/- 56,40,000/- 94,00,000 3. Baba Basuki Distributors Pvt. Ltd 560000 56,00,000/- 84,00,000/- 1,40,00,000/- 4. Regard Fin Cap Pvt. Ltd 200000 20,00,000/- 30,00,000/- 50,00,000/-   Total 1191000 1,19,10,000/- 1,78,65,000/- 2,97,75,000/- The above sum of Rs. 2,97,75,000/- was added to the total income of the ....

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....that finding is not under challenge, that this is not a case of cash credit entered in the books of account of the assessee during the year but it is a case in which the assessee has invested the capital in the business and this amount was shown as a closing capital as on March 31, 1992, and on April 1, 1992, it was an opening balance. Considering this aspect, the Tribunal has come to the conclusion that what was already credited in the books of account ending on March 31, 1992, for the financial year 1991-92 relevant to the assessment year 1992-93 cannot be an unexplained cash credit or investment in the books of account maintained for the financial year 1992-93, the accounting period of which ends on March 31, 1993, so as to warrant its consideration as unexplained investment or cash credit for its relevant assessment year 1993-94. 5. It does not require any elaborate argument that a carried forward amount of the previous year does not become an investment or cash credit generated during the relevant year 1993-94. This alone is sufficient to sustain the order of the Tribunal in deleting the amount of Rs. 1,55,316 from the assessment for the assessment year 1993-94. Since....

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....rade Vyapaar Ltd is an associate company of the assessee. Both the directors of the assessee company namely Lalit Kr Kothari and Giriraj Ratan Bagri were also the Directors in this company. The assessee company was also holding shares of this company. M/s.Startrade Vyapaar Ltd is engaged in the business of hiring machinery and equipments. Further, as would be evident from ITR Acknowledgment for AY 2011-12, the company reported gross income of Rs. 2,03,92,591/-. M/s Startrade Vvapaar Ltd is also an associate concern of M/s. Simplex Infrastructure Ltd, a listed company with BSE. The same is also mentioned in the 'Related Party Disclosure' of the company. Almost the entire source of funds for investment in the assessee company was from revenue generated from Simplex Infrastructure Limited as would be clearly evident from the detailed chart showing the date wise inflow of funds and the subsequent investment in the assessee company enclosed at page 25 of the paper book. A copy of the chart of source of funds, ITR acknowledgment, Annual Accounts for the FY 2010-11 and the relevant Bank Statement are attached at Page 25-79 of the Paper Book. On a perusal of the Balance Sheet, i....

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....nds and the subsequent investment in the assessee company enclosed at Page 80 of the Paper Book. A copy of the chart of source of funds, 1TR acknowledgment, Annual Accounts for the FY 201112 and the relevant Bank Statement are attached at Page 80-108 of the Paper Book. On a perusal of the Balance Sheet, it can be seen that the own funds of the company is Rs. 9,83,20,364/-. This very clearly shows the high creditworthiness of the company to make investment in the assessee company. Further, the entire inflow and outflow of funds was made through regular banking channels as supported by Bank Statements of both the companies. In addition to above, it is also submitted that the company had total revenue of Rs. 47,11,528/-. During the F.Y. 2011-12, it earned profit before taxes of Rs. 9,54,007/. The revenue comprises of interest income, dividend income and sale of shares which are the main source of income. The company had paid tax of Rs. 1,83,203/- during the year. Further, as already discussed the company being engaged in the business of lending and investing activities, the company made investment in the assessee accompany as well as several other companies out of the refund of loa....

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.... The company also earned profit before taxes of Rs. 39,65,867/- during F.Y. 201112. Further, the company had also earned profit before taxes of Rs. 33,91 369/- in the F.Y. 2010-11. This very clearly shows that the company had maintained net profit ratio ranging between 70%-90%. This show that the capacity of the company is financially strong. Copy of the Financial Statement enclosed at page 119-142 of Paper book. Further, it is obvious that the company being investment company will make investment in one company and will either earn income from such investment or if the investment are refunded then the same will be utilised in investing in any other company. Hence, this cannot be said to be mere rotation of money as the main business of such company is lending and investing activities. The copies of source of funds, ITR acknowledgment, Annual Accounts and the relevant Bank Statement to prove the identity of the shareholder and genuineness and creditworthiness of the company to make investment are enclosed at page 109-142 of the paper book. (iv) Regard Fin-Cap Pvt Ltd: During the year 2,00,000 equity shares were allotted to M/s Regard Fin-Cap Pvt Ltd. M/s Regard Fin-Cap Pvt Ltd....

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....hows that the transaction incurred was through genuine sources. Thus, the Source of Fund, Bank Statements, Balance Sheet, ITR of all the investors and the assessee company clearly substantiate the identity and creditworthiness of the share applicant and genuineness of the transactions. The source of source has also been established, which is not required for AY 2012-13. Therefore, the assessee company had duly discharged its onus to prove the identity, creditworthiness and genuineness of the investor company and the transaction made during the year. 9. The Ld. DR submitted that the assessee had not justified the reasons for issuing shares at a high premium. Therefore, according to the Ld. DR, the genuineness of the transaction remained un-proved. He therefore, vehemently argued that the order of the Ld. CIT(A) should be upheld. On the other hand, the Ld Counsel first drew our attention to the several grounds raised by the assessee in respect of addition made u/s 68 of the Act. Thereafter on the merits of the case, our attention was drawn by the Ld Counsel to relevant page of paper book where we note that shareholders had submitted the following relevant details as called for and....

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....bsence of a satisfactory explanation, the unexplained cash credit may be charged to income-tax as the income of the assessee of that previous year. In this case the legislative mandate is not in terms of the words 'shall' be charged to income-tax as the income of the assessee of that previous year. The Supreme Court while interpreting similar phraseology used in section 69 has held that in creating the legal fiction the phraseology employs the word "may" and not "shall". Thus the unsatisfactoriness of the explanation does not and need not automatically result in deeming the amount credited in the books as the income of the assessee as also held by the Supreme Court in the case of CIT v. Smt. P. K. Noorjahan [1999] 237 ITR 570. 11. The main plank on which the AO made the addition was because the directors of the share subscribers did not turn up before him. From the notices issued u/s 131, it is noted that each of the share subscribing company was required to furnish the following details for examination: - Details of shares of assessee applied for including number of shares, nominal price, premium and amount - Correspondence made for application of shares ....

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....the Assessing Officer under section 131, by the alleged creditors will not be sufficient to draw and adverse inference against the assessee in the case of six creditors who appeared before the Assessing Officer and whose statements were recorded by the Assessing Officer, they have admitted having advanced loans to the assessee by account payee cheques and in case the Assessing Officer was not satisfied with the cash amount deposited by those creditors in their bank accounts, the proper course would have been to make assessments in the cases of those creditors by treating the cash deposits in their bank accounts as unexplained investments of those creditors under section 69. 12. Undisputedly the Share Applicants in this case are the bank account holder in their respective banks in their own name and are sole owner of the credits appearing in their bank account from where they issued cheques to the assessee company. For the proposition that a Bank Account holder himself is the 'owner' of 'credits' appearing in his account (with the result that he himself is accountable to explain the source of such credits in whatever way and form, the same have emerged) support ca....

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.... same should be decided by taking into consideration the provision of section 106 of the Evidence Act which says that a person can be required to prove only such facts which are in his knowledge. The Hon'ble Court in the said case held that, once it is found that an assessee has actually taken money from depositor/lender who has been fully identified, the assessee/borrower cannot be called upon to explain, much less prove the affairs of such third party, which he is not even supposed to know or about which he cannot be held to be accredited with any knowledge. In this view, the Hon'ble Court has laid down that section 68 of Income-tax Act, should be read along with section 106 of Evidence Act. The relevant observations at page 260 to 262, 264 and 265 of the report are reproduced herein below:- "While interpreting the meaning and scope of section 68, one has to bear in mind that normally, interpretation of a statute shall be general, in nature, subject only to such exceptions as may be logically permitted by the statute itself or by some other law connected therewith or relevant thereto. Keeping in view these fundamentals of interpretation of statutes, when we read ....

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....d together, which they must, then, the interpretation of section 68 are to stand together, which they must, then the interpretation of section 68 has to be in such a way that it does not make section 106 redundant. Hence, the harmonious construction of section 106 of the Evidence Act and section 68 of the Income- tax Act will be that though apart from establishing the identity of the creditor, the assessee must establish the genuineness of the transaction as well as the creditworthiness of his creditor, the burden of the assessee to prove the genuineness of the transactions as well as the creditworthiness of the creditor must remain confined to the transactions, which have taken place between the assessee and the creditor. What follows, as a corollary, is that it is not the burden of the assessee to prove the genuineness of the transactions between his creditor and sub-creditors nor is it the burden of the assessee to prove that the sub- creditor had the creditworthiness to advance the cash credit to the creditor from whom the cash credit has been. eventually, received by the assessee. It, therefore, further logically follows that the creditor's creditworthiness has to be Judge....

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....o the creditor was income of the assessee from undisclosed source unless there is evidence, direct or circumstantial, to show that the amount which has been advanced by the subcreditor to the creditor, had actually been received by the sub-creditor from the assessee ...." ********** "Keeping in view the above position of law, when we turn to the factual matrix of the present case, we find that so far as the assessee is concerned, he has established the identity of the creditors, namely, NemichandNahata and Sons (HUF) and Pawan Kumar Agarwalla. The assessee had also shown, in accordance with the burden, which rested on him under section 106 of the Evidence Act, that the said amounts had been received by him by way of cheques from the creditors aforementioned. In fact the fact that the assessee had received the said amounts by way of cheques was not in dispute. Once the assessee had established that he had received the said amounts from the creditors aforementioned by way of cheques, the assessee must be taken to have proved that the creditor had the creditworthiness to advance the loans. Thereafter the burden had shifted to the Assessing Officer to prove the contra....

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....ct only on the ground that the parties to whom the share certificates were issued and who had paid the share money had not appeared before the Assessing Officer and the summons could not be served on the addresses given as they were not traced and in respect of some of the parties who had appeared, it was observed that just before issuance of cheques, the amount was deposited in their account. [6] The Tribunal has considered that the Assessee has produced on record the documents to establish the genuineness of the party such as PAN of all the creditors along with the confirmation, their bank statements showing payment of share application money. It was also observed by the Tribunal that the Assessee has also produced the entire record regarding issuance of shares i.e. allotment of shares to these parties, their share application forms, allotment letters and share certificates, so also the books of account. The balance sheet and profit and loss account of these persons discloses that these persons had sufficient funds in their accounts for investing in the shares of the Assessee. In view of these voluminous documentary evidence, only because those persons had not appeared b....

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....erify the statements." 19. Further, the Hon'ble High Court at Calcutta in the case of Crystal Networks (P.) Ltd. v. Commissioner of Income-tax (353 ITR 171), on the issue of unexplained cash credits, held that when the basic evidences are on record the mere failure of the creditor to appear cannot be basis to make addition. The court held as follows: 8. Assailing the said judgment of the learned Tribunal learned counsel for the assessee submits that Income-tax Officer did not consider the material evidence showing the creditworthiness and also other documents, viz., confirmatory statements of the persons, of having advanced cash amount as against the supply of bidis. These evidence were duly considered by the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals). Therefore, the failure of the person to turn up pursuant to the summons issued to any witness is immaterial when the material documents made available, should have been accepted and indeed in subsequent year the same explanation was accepted by the Income-tax Officer. He further contended that when the Tribunal has relied on the entire judgment of the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals), therefore, it was not proper to tak....

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....a judicial function under the Indian Income-tax Act; it is invested with authority to determine finally all questions of fact. The Tribunal must, in deciding an appeal, consider with due care all the material facts and record its finding on all the contentions raised by the assessee and the Commissioner, in the light of the evidence and the relevant law. " 11. The Tribunal must, in deciding an appeal, consider with due care all the material facts and record its finding on all contentions raised by the assessee and the Commissioner, in the light of the evidence and the relevant law. It is also ruled in the said judgment at page 465 that if the Tribunal does not discharge the duty in the manner as above then it shall be assumed the judgment of the Tribunal suffers from manifest infirmity. 12. Taking inspiration from the Supreme Court observations we are constrained to hold in this matter that the Tribunal has not adjudicated upon the case of the assessee in the light of the evidence as found by the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals). We also found no single word has been spared to up set the fact finding of the Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals) that there are m....

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.... "Can the amount of share money be regarded as undisclosed income under section 68 of the Income tax Act, 1961? We find no merit in this special leave petition for the simple reason that if the share application money is received by the assessee- company from alleged bogus shareholders, whose names are given to the AO, then the Department is free to proceed to reopen their individual assessments in accordance with law. Hence, we find no infirmity with the impugned judgment. 22. Our attention was also drawn to the decision of the Hon'ble Calcutta High Court in the appeal of Commissioner of Income tax, Kolkata- IVVs Roseberry Mercantile (P) ltd., ITAT no. 241 of 2010 dated 10- 01-2011, wherein it was held as below: "On the facts and in the circumstances of the case, Ld. CIT(A) ought to have upheld the assessment order as the transaction entered into by the assessee was a scheme for laundering black money into white money or accounted money and the Ld. CIT (A) ought to have held that the assessee had not established the genuineness of the transaction. " It appears from the record that in the assessment proceedings it was noticed that the assessee compan....

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....ppeal before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) being the First Appellate Authority and contended that the Assessing Officer had no material to show that the share capital was the income of the assessee company and as such the addition made by the Assessing Officer under Section 68 of the Act was wrong. The learned Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) after hearing the department and the Assessee Company deleted the addition of Rs. 52, 03,500/- to the income of the assessee company during the Assessment Year in question. The learned Commissioner of Income Tax Appeals found that there were as many as 2155 allottees, whose names, addresses and respective shares allocation had been disclosed. The Commissioner of Income Tax Appeals, further found that the Assessee Company received the applications through bankers to the issue, who had been appointed under the guidelines of the Stock Exchange and the Assessee Company had been allotted shares on the basis of allotment approved by the Stock Exchange. The Assessee Company had duly filed the return of allotment with the Registrar of Companies, giving complete particulars of the allottees. The Commissioner of....

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.... existence. Only nine shareholders subscribing to about 900 shares out of 6, 12,000 shares were not found available at their addresses, and that too, in course of assessment proceedings in the year 1994, i.e., almost 3 years after the allotment. By an order dated 2nd May, 2001, this Court admitted the appeal on three questions which essentially centre around the question of whether the Appellate Commissioner erred in law in deleting the addition of Rs. 52, 03, 500/- to the income of the assessee as made by the Assessing Officer. We are of the view that there is no question of law involved in this appeal far less any substantial question of law. The learned Tribunal has concurred with the learned Commissioner on facts and found that there were materials to show that the assessee had disclosed the particulars of the shareholders. The factual findings cannot be interfered with, in appeal. We are of the view that once the identity and other relevant particulars of shareholders are disclosed, it is for those shareholders to explain the source of their funds and not for the assessee company to show wherefrom these shareholders obtained funds." 24. Further, our attent....

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....the facts of the present case and, thus, we do not find any reason to interfere with the concurrent findings of fact based on materials on record. The appeal is, thus, devoid of any substance and is dismissed summarily as it does not involve any substantial question of law. 25. Further, in the case of Pr. CIT Vs Hi-Tech Residency (P) Ltd (96 taxmann.com 402), the grievance of the Revenue before the Hon'ble Delhi High Court was that the none of the investors in the share capital of the assessee had personally appeared before the AO and for that reason the addition made by the AO u/s 68 was justified. While dismissing the appeal of the Revenue, the High Court held as follows: "4. The Court finds that the exercise for determining the identity, genuineness and creditworthiness of the investors of the share capital of the Assessee as well as lenders was undertaken in an elaborate manner by the CIT (A). Comments from the AO were sought. Detailed reasons have been given by the CIT (A) to come to the conclusion that the Assessee had discharged its onus of establishing the identity, genuineness and creditworthiness of both the investors as well as the lenders. This has ....

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....ich in turn has been used by them to subscribe to the assessee company as share application. Hence the source of source is proved by the assessee in the instant case though the same is not required to be done by the assessee as per law as it stood/ applicable in this assessment year. The share applicants have confirmed the share application as well as the payments made to the assessee company, which are duly corroborated with their respective bank statements and all the payments are by account payee cheques. 27. We find that the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of M/s Earth Metal Electricals P Ltd vs CIT &Anr. reported in 2010 (7) TMI 1137 in Civil Appeal No. 21073 / 2009 dated 30.7.2010 arising from the order of Hon'ble Bombay High Court had held as under:- ORDER Delay condoned. Leave granted. Heard learned counsel on both sides. We have examined the position. We find that the shareholders are genuine parties. They are not bogus and fictitious. Therefore, the impugned order is set aside. The appeal is allowed accordingly. No order as to costs. 28. In the instant case before us, we also note that the share subscribing com....

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....ords of the Companies. The documents also include assessment Orders for last three preceding years of such Companies. 7. The Assessees have failed to explain as to how such Companies have been assessed though according to them such Companies are not existing and are fictitious companies. Besides the documents also included the registration of the Company which discloses the registered address of such Companies. There is no material on record produced by the Assessees which could rebut the documents produced by the Respondents herein. In such circumstances, the finding of fact arrived at by the authorities below which are based on documentary evidence on record cannot be said to be perverse. Learned Counsel appearing for the Assessees was unable to point out that any of such findings arrived at by the authorities below were on the basis of misleading of evidence or failure to examine any material documents whilst coming to such conclusions. Under the guise of the substantial question of law, this Court in an Appeal under Section 260A of the Income Tax Act cannot re-appreciate the evidence to come to any contrary evidence. Considering that the authorities have rendered the f....

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....rtaining how much is a reasonable premium having regard to the circumstances of the case. [Para 53] There is no dispute about the receipt of funds through banking channel nor there is any dispute about the identity, creditworthiness and genuineness of the investors and, therefore, the same has been established beyond any doubt and there should not have been any question or dispute about premium paid by the investors; therefore, unless there is a limitation put by the law on the amount of premium, the transaction should not be questioned merely because the assessing authority thinks that the investor could have managed by paying a lesser amount as Share Premium as a prudent businessman. The test of prudence by substituting its own view in place of the businessman's has not been approved by the Supreme Court. [Para 54]" (b) In the case of CIT v. Gagandeep Infrastructure (P.) Ltd. [2017] 80 taxmann.com 272/247 Taxman 245/394 ITR 680 the Revenue contended that the fact that the shares were issued at high premium raised suspicion on the genuineness of the transactions. While dismissing this plea raised by the Revenue, the Hon'ble Bombay High Court held as under: ....

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....tion entries since the shares were issued at a high premium. The Hon'ble Delhi High Court did not agree with this contention put forth by the Revenue, by observing as under: "Whether the assessee-company charged a higher premium or not, should not have been the subject matter of the enquiry in the first instance. Instead, the issue was whether the amount invested by the share applicants were from legitimate sources. The objective of section 68 is to avoid inclusion of amount which are suspect. Therefore, the emphasis on genuineness of all the three aspects, identity, creditworthiness and the transaction. What is disquieting in the present case is when the assessment was completed, the investigation report which was specifically called from the concerned department was available but not discussed by the Assessing Officer. Had he cared to do so, the identity of the investors, the genuineness of the transaction and the creditworthiness of the share applicants would have been apparent. Even otherwise, the share applicants' particulars were available with the Assessing Officer in the form of balance sheets income-tax returns, PAN details etc. While arriving at the conclusio....

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....est that the share application had been received by the assessee from its own undisclosed sources nor any material was brought on record to show that the applicants were bogus. The Revenue was neither able to controvert the documentary evidences filed by the assessee nor prove that the share application were ingenuine or the applicants were non-creditworthy. The findings of the CIT(Appeals) were upheld by the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal. On appeal to the High Court, the Revenue placed strong reliance on the decision of another coordinate Bench of the same Court in the" case of CIT Vs Novo Promoters &Finlease (P) Ltd (342 ITR 169). The High Court however held that the aforesaid judgment was distinguishable from the facts of the present case. The Court observed that in that judgment the Assessing Officer had brought on record enough corroborative evidence to show that the assessee had routed unaccounted monies into its books through medium of share subscription. The share applicants had confessed that they were "accommodation entry providers". The Assessing Officer in the latter case was able to prove with enough material that the share subscription was a pre-meditated plan to rout....

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....he unexplained amount is to be taken at Rs. 55,50,000/-. The assessee has further tries to explain the source of this amount of Rs. 55,50,000/- by furnishing copies of share application money, balance4 sheet etc. of the parties mentioned above and asserted that the question of addition in the income of the assessee does not arise. This explanation of the assessee has been duly considered and found not acceptable. This entry remains unexplained in the hands of the assessee as has been arrived by the Investigation wing of the department. As such entries of Rs. 55,50,000/- received by the assessee are treated as an unexplained cash credit in the hands of the assessee and added to its income. Since I am satisfied that the assessee has furnished inaccurate particulars of its income/ penalty proceedings under Section 271(1)(c) are being initiated separately. The facts of Nova Promoters and Finlease (P) Ltd. (supra) fall in the former category and that is why this Court decided in favour of the revenue in that case. However, the facts of the present case are clearly distinguishable and fall in the second category and are more in line with facts of Lovely Exports (P) Ltd. (supra).....

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....irectors. No effort was made in that regard. In the absence of any such finding that the material disclosed was untrustworthy or lacked credibility the Assessing Officer merely concluded on the basis of enquiry report, which collected certain facts and the statements of Mr.MaheshGarg that the income sought to be added fell within the description ofS.68 of the Income Tax Act 1961. Having regard to the entirety of facts and circumstances, the Court is satisfied that the finding of the Tribunal in this case accords with the ratio of the decision of the Supreme Court in Lovely Exports (supra). The decision in this case is based on the peculiar facts which attract the ratio of Lovely Exports (supra). Where the assessee adduces evidence in support of the share application monies, it is open to the Assessing Officer to examine it and reject it on tenable grounds. In case he wishes to rely on the report of the investigation authorities, some meaningful enquiry ought to be conducted by him to establish a link between the assessee and the alleged hawala operators, such a link was shown to be present in the case of Nova Promoters &Finlease (P) Ltd. (supra) relied upon by the revenue.....

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.... Held After hearing the learned counsel for the assessee and after going through the decision of the Supreme Court in the cases of CIT vs M/s Lovelv Exports Pvt Ltd, we are at one with the tribunal below that the point involved in this appeal is covered by the said Supreme Court decision in favour of the assessee and thus, no substantial question of law is involved in this appeal. The appeal is devoid of any substance and is dismissed. 3.4.2. In view of the aforesaid findings and respectfully following the decision of the apex court (supra) and Jurisdictional High Court (supra) , we find no infirmity in the order of the Learned CIT(A) and accordingly, the ground no.2 raised by the Revenue is dismissed. 4. The last ground to be decided in this appeal of the Revenue is as to whether the Learned CIT(A) is justified in deleting the addition u/s 68 of the Act made in respect of allotment of shares to 20 individuals for an amount of Rs. 57,00,000/- in the facts and circumstances of the case. 4.1. The brief fact of this issue is that the assessee had received share application monies from 20 individuals in the earlier year which were kept in share appli....

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....llotment of shares to 20 numbers of individual investors for an amount of Rs. 57 lakhs, where genuineness of the transactions and creditworthiness of the investors were not established." (b) In the case of DCIT Vs. R.B Horticulture & Animal Projects Co. Ltd in ITA No. 632/Kol/2011 dated 13-01-2016, this Tribunal held as follows: 4.3. The Learned DR prayed for admission of the additional ground raised before us and vehemently supported the order of the Learned AO. In response to this, the Learned AR fairly conceded to admission of this additional ground and vehemently supported the order of the Learned CIT(A). 4.4. We have heard the rival submissions and perused the materials available on record including the detailed paper book filed by the assessee. We find that the additional ground raised by the assessee separately before us vide its covering letter dated 9. 12.2011 is admitted as it appears to be a genuine and bonafide error of omission on the part of the Revenue from not raising this ground in the original grounds of appeal filed along with the memorandum of appeal. Moreover, it does not require any fresh examination of facts. Hence the same is admitted he....

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.... "On the facts and in the circumstances of the case, Ld. CIT(A) ought to have upheld the assessment order as the transaction entered into by the assessee was a scheme for laundering black money into white money or accounted money and the Ld. CIT(A) ought to have held that the assessee had not established the genuineness of the transaction." Held After hearing the learned counsel for the assessee and after going through the decision of the Supreme Court in the cases of CIT vs M/s Lovely Exports Pvt Ltd, we are at one with the tribunal below that the point involved in this appeal is covered by the said Supreme Court decision in favour of the assessee and thus, no substantial question of law is involved in this appeal. The appeal is devoid of any substance and is dismissed." 6.2. We find that the issue is also covered by the decision of Hon'ble Delhi High Court in the case of CIT vs Value Capital Services P Ltd reported in (2008) 307 ITR 334 (Del) , wherein it was held that: "In respect of amounts shown as received by the assessee towards share application money from 33 persons, the Assessing Officer required the assessee to produce all these persons. While acce....

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....esses furnished in Form 2 as filed with him, which were duly served at the given addresses. The A0 argued that the letters should not have been served at the given address by the assessee. He served a show a cause notice dated 09.12.2011 asking for the explanation from the assessee as to how the notices u/s. 133(6) could be served to these nine companies who had different address as per ROC records. The AO was explained vide letter dated 20.12.2011 of the assessee that those companies had changed their addresses since filing of Form 2 with the Registrar. Further, it was none of the business of the assessee to question the addresses of the applicants as long as they affirm the address. The applicants were duly incorporated bodies under the Companies Act. 1956 since long. They have been regularly filing their returns of income under the Income Tax Act and are being assessed by the Revenue since long. Some of them are even registered as Non-Banking Financial Companies with Reserve bank of India. They have been filing returns regularly with Registrar of Companies and RBI since long. The letters might have been received at their old addresses because in case of change in the address, pe....

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....form of share capital is duly supported with the requisite document as discussed above. To our mind the basis on which the addition was made by the AO is not tenable. The Ld. DR also could not brought anything on record to controvert the findings of the Ld. CIT(A). In view of above we find no reason to interfere in the order of the Id. CIT(A). Accordingly the ground raised by Revenue is dismissed." (d) In the case of ITO vs Cygnus Developers (I) P Ltd in ITA No. 282/Kol/2012 dated 2.3.2016, this Tribunal held as follows: "6. On appeal by the assessee the CIT(A) deleted the addition made by the AO observing as follows "6) I have considered the submission of the assessee and perused the assessment order. I have also gone through the details and documents filed by the assessee company in the course of assessment: proceedings vide letter dt. 3-10-2007. On careful consideration of the facts and in law I am of the opinion that the AO was not justified in making, the addition aggregating to Rs. 54,00,000/- u/s.68 of the Act being the amount of share application money by holding that the assessee company has failed to prove the identity, and creditworthiness of The cre....

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.... is regularly assessed to Income tax having PAN, on the ground that the identity of the investor is not proved cannot be sustained. Attention was also to the similar ruling of the ITAT Kolkata bench in the case of ITO vsDevinder Singh Shant in IT A No.20BIKo112009 vide order dated 17.04.2009. 9. We have considered the rival submissions., We are of the view that order of CIT(A) does not call for any interference. It may be seen from the grounds of appeal raised by the Revenue that the Revenue disputed only the proof of identity of the shareholder. In this regard it is seen that for A Y.2004-05 Shree ShyamTrexim Pvt. Ltd., was assessed by ITO, Ward- 9(4), Kolkata and the order of assessment u/s/143(3) dated 25.01.2006 is placed in the paper book. SimilarlyNavalco Commodities Pvt. Ltd., was assessed to tax u/s 143(3) for A Y.2005- 06 by I TO, Ward- 9(4), Kolkata by order dated 20.03.2007. SimilarlyJewellockTrexim Pvt. Ltd was assessed to tax for A Y.2005-06 by the very same ITO- Ward- 9(3), Kolkata assessing the Assessee. In the light of the above factual position which is not disputed by the Revenue, it cannot be said that the identity of the share applicants remained not pr....