2020 (3) TMI 1048

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....ssessee filed an affidavit affirming therein that due to sudden preoccupation of her husband, these appeals were not filled filed within the stipulated time and, therefore requested to condone the delay. As the assessee was prevented by reasonable cause, we condone the delay and admit the appeals for hearing and adjudication. The only issue involved in both these appeals is whether the urban land is held by the assessee attracts provisions of section 2(ea) of the Wealth Tax Act or not. According to the AO, the urban lands owned by the assessee are not at all used for agricultural purposes, therefore, the retrospective amendment made by the Finance Act, 2013 in Explanation 1 to section 2(ea) does not applicable to the case of the assessee....

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....ight of the retrospective amendment introduced by the Finance Act 2013 it is important to bear in mind the context in which the change had been introduced. The relevant part of the Explanatory Notes extracted from CBDT Circular No. 03/2014 Ot. 24/01/2014 reads as under: " ... no specific. exemption has been provided to the agricultural land. Recently it has been held by the Hon'ble Supreme Court that agricultural land situated in urban area is liable for wealth tax. As the wealth tax is levied only on unproductive assets, there was no intention to levy wealth tax on the agricultural land which cannot be termed as unproductive assets. " Urban land as understood with reference to Explanation 1(b) under section 2(ea) continues to ....

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....ibuted to any expression. 6.5 Under the erstwhile Section 2(e) a taxable asset was understood inclusively, as property of any kind subject to specified exclusions such as 'agricultural land'. Under the pre-amended Section 2(ea) w.e.f. 01/04/1993 a taxable asset was exhaustively defined to include 'urban land'. Urban land was in turn understood as land within Municipal Limits or a notified periphery without regard to its agricultural or non-agricultural nature. Land outside such limits was not taxable irrespective of its nature as agricultural or non-agricultural. As a corollary, land within such limits became taxable regardless of whether it was employed for agricultural pursuits or not. The underlying premise was t....