TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2021 (6) TMI 825
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....ce of notice under Section 148 of the Act on 08.03.2013. After completing the assessment, the Assessing Officer held that the property at Bombay was self-occupied by the assessee and therefore, the interest to be allowed has to be restricted to Rs. 1,50,000/- as against the claim of Rs. 8,51,524/-. In respect of the property at Chennai, the Assessing Officer estimated the annual letting value at Rs. 1,20,000/- and brought a sum of Rs. 84,000/- as income from house property. The Assessing Officer reworked the deduction allowable under Section 10(13A) and restricted the deduction at Rs. 30,000/- and accordingly, determined the total income of the assessee at Rs. 67,17,630/-. Challenging the order passed by the Assessing Officer, the assessee preferred an appeal before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) and the Appellate Authority dismissed the appeal. Aggrieved over the same, the assessee preferred an appeal before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal and the Tribunal allowed the appeal. Challenging the order passed by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, the Revenue has filed the above appeal. 3.The Revenue has raised the following substantial questions of law in the appeal: "(i....
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....t Tax Laws (Amendment) Act, 1987 , section 147 reads as under : "147. Income escaping assessment.- If- (a) the Income-tax Officer has reason to believe that, by reason of the omission or failure on the part of an assessee to make a return under section 139 for any assessment year to the Income-tax Officer or to disclose fully and truly all material facts necessary for his assessment for that year, income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment for that year, or (b) notwithstanding that there has been no omission or failure as mentioned in clause (a) on the part of the assessee, the Income-tax Officer has in consequence of information in his possession reason to believe that income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment for any assessment year, he may, subject to the provisions of sections 148 to 153 , assess or reassess such income or recompute the loss or the depreciation allowance, as the case may be, for the assessment year concerned (hereafter in sections 148 to 153 referred to as the relevant assessment year)." [Emphasis supplied] 3.1.After enactment of Direct Tax Laws (Amendment) Act, 1987 , i.e., prior to 1-4-1989, section 147 of the Act, reads as under : "1....
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....n mind the conceptual difference between power to review and power to re-assess. The Assessing Officer has no power to review; he has the power to reassess. But reassessment has to be based on fulfilment of certain pre-condition and if the concept of "change of opinion" is removed, as contended on behalf of the Department, then, in the garb of re-opening the assessment, review would take place. One must treat the concept of "change of opinion" as an in-built test to check abuse of power by the Assessing Officer. Hence, after 1-4-1989 , Assessing Officer has power to reopen, provided there is "tangible material" to come to the conclusion that there is escapement of income from assessment. Reasons must have a live link with the formation of the belief. Our view gets support from the changes made to section 147 of the Act, as quoted hereinabove. Under the Direct Tax Laws (Amendment) Act, 1987 , Parliament not only deleted the words "reason to believe" but also inserted the word "opinion" in section 147 of the Act. However, on receipt of representations from the Companies against omission of the words "reason to believe", Parliament re-introduced the said expression and deleted the wor....
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....sess, that the Assessing Officer has no power to review, that he has the power to reassess and that reassessment has to be based on fulfilment of certain pre-conditions and if the concept "change of opinion" is removed, then in the garb of reopening the assessment, review would take place. It was held that the concept of "change of opinion" should be treated as in-built test to check the abuse of power by the Assessing Officer. Thus, it was held that after 1-4-1999, the Assessing Officer has power to reopen provided there is "tangible material" to come to the conclusion that there is an escapement of income from assessment and reasons must have a live link with the formation of the belief. 31.Bearing the aforementioned legal principles in mind, if we examine the facts of the present case, as rightly pointed out by the Tribunal, all particulars relating to dividends and short term capital gains and other particulars were available with the Assessing Officer during the assessment proceedings, which was concluded on 15-2-1999 under section 143(3) of the Act. Furthermore, the Tribunal, on facts, recorded that the Department did not bring any material fact before it, which was not d....