TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2019 (8) TMI 1581
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....Appellate Tribunal is right in remanding the matter pertaining to the claim of deduction under section 80-IA(4) of the Act to the file of the respondent-Assessing Officer despite the compliance of the conditions prescribed in relation thereto, availability of their order for the earlier assessment years approving such claim of deduction and the compliance of the law laid down by this court in the case of A. L. Logistics Private Limited ? (ii) Whether the Appellate Tribunal is correct in remanding the matter to the file of the respondent-Assessing Officer in spite of the availability of the approval/agreement as contemplated by this court to make eligible for the claim of deduction under section 80-IA(4) of the Act, which fact was not disputed by the Revenue proving perversity in recording the findings of fact in relation thereto ? and (iii) Whether the Appellate Tribunal is correct in not following the earlier decisions rendered by them in granting such deduction for the very same infrastructure facility, namely, container freight station reckoned as port/inland port within the scope of section 80-IA(4) of the Act, which completely defied the principles of judicial discipline a....
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.... February 26, 2009, which is also a subject matter of appeal before us. In fact, in these years, investigation of facts with regard to warehousing charges have been made as directed by the hon'ble Income-tax Appellate Tribunal in earlier years. The same officer has found in this regard thus : "3.7 The contentions of the Assessing Officer and the submission of the appellant were carefully considered by me. I have also considered the additional submission of the Assessing Officer sent to me vide his letter dated December 13, 2007 enclosing the orders of the Commissioner of Income-tax-I, Chennai, passed for the assessment years 2002-03 and 2003-04 wherein agreeing with the Assessing Officer's action of excluding warehousing income from CFS income he set aside the assessment of assessment years 2002-03 and 2003-04 for excluding the warehousing income from CFS receipts and considering the income and expenditure on Numbal plot and the director's travelling expenses after due verification of the facts. I have also considered the counter submission of the authorized representative thereon. Now I proceed to decide the issue as under. The approving guidelines expect that adeq....
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....y separately for exports and imports and long-term storage of bonded cargo.' Here it is also worthwhile to reproduce the above mentioned notification and minimum level of facilities required for ready reference : No. 16/4/95-Infra-1 Government of India, Ministry of Commerce Infra-I Section New Delhi, February 23, 1995 M/s. A. S. Shipping Agencies Pvt. Ltd., 55, Armenian Street, Madras 600 001. Subject : Application for setting up a container freight station at Numbal village, Madras. I am directed to refer to your application dated June 9, 1994 on the above subject and to say that the Government has approved your proposal for setting up a container freight station at Numbal village, Madras for handling export cargo only. The approval is subject to the following terms and conditions : (i) Proper infrastructure would be created by you keeping in view the norms given in parts A and B of the guidelines for setting up inland container depots/container freight stations (ICDs/CFSs) and to the satisfaction of the concerned Collector of Customs and Central Excise within a period of six months from the date of issue of this let ter. (ii) Necessary bond and guarantees wo....
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....of the CFS operation business of the appellant. Further, the Commissioner of Customs has also notified the stipulated area as public bonded warehouse vide his letter dated September 26, 2000. Furthermore, vide Public Notice 173 of 2001 and several other public notices the warehouse has been included in the customs area. 3.15 Therefore, after a careful consideration of the facts and circumstances of the case, various statutory requirements and conditional approval of the Ministry of Commerce I find that the claim of the appellant is allowable. The Assessing Officer has been wrongly influenced by the fact that warehousing facilities may be situated out side CFS area also and such warehousing facilities do not get any deduction. The Assessing Officer is very correct that warehousing facilities alone may not get any deduction but when they are part of CFS as a necessary infrastructure as discussed above and such CFSs can come into existence and operate only if it provides minimum infrastructure facility as only then sanction for the CFS status is granted then such warehousing facility is different from the standalone warehousing facility operated outside CFS. In fact, the situation i....
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....ssessing Officer. 9. The learned counsel for the appellant-assessee has relied upon the decision in the case of A. L. Logistics Private Limited. 10. In the said decision, it has been held that the container freight station was a part of inland port and therefore, the assessee therein was entitled to the infrastructure facility as defined in the Explanation to section 80IA(4)(i) of the Act. The Revenue contended that there was no specific agreement entered into by the assessee therein with the Central Government or the State Government or a local authority or any statutory body for being entitled to claim the benefit of section 80-IA(4)(i) of the Act. After taking note of the notification issued by the Government of India, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Department of Commerce Infrastructure Division vide Notification No. 16/6/2003-Infra-I dated May 27, 2003 and the letter received by the assessee therein from the director, it was pointed out that the proposal of the assessee therein was accepted by the Government on certain conditions, which were duly complied with by the assessee therein and that there may not be any specific agreement, but the sequence of events showed that ....