TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (1) TMI 316
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....f the Act. The case of the petitioner was selected for complete scrutiny and an exhaustive list of issues was communicated by notice under Section 164 (2) of the Act on 22.09.2019. During the course of scrutiny, various notices under Section 142 (1) of the Act were issued and replies to the same were submitted by the petitioner. 3. It is claimed that during the course of scrutiny proceedings, the petitioner realized that 'provision for doubtful GST input tax credit' amounting to Rs. 16,30,91,496/- had been inadvertently merged with another expense account and mistakenly claimed as expenses under the IT provisions. Accordingly, the said amount was suo moto surrendered by the petitioner by revising its return of income and adding back the amount 'provision for doubtful GST input tax credit', to the total income. The said aspect was communicated vide letter dated 24.02.2021 alongwith submission of revised computation. 4. The assessment order (Annex. 6) under Section 143 (3) of the Act was passed by the National E-Assessment Centre ('NeAC') making only addition of suo moto surrendered amount of Rs. 16,30,91,496/-, however, it was observed in the order that the penalty under Secti....
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....ed the amount by revising its return of income and adding back the amount to total income and, therefore, the same was not a case of misrepresentation or suppression of facts or claim of expenses not substantiated by any evidence, as required by sub-Clauses (a) and (c) of Section 270A (9) and, therefore, on that count also the order passed by the revisional authority deserves to be set aside. 9. Reliance was placed on Schneider Electric South East Asia (HQ) PTE Ltd. vs. Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax International Taxation Circle-3 (1) (2), New Delhi & Ors. : WP (C) 5111/2022 decided on 28.03.2022 by Delhi High Court. 10. Learned counsel for the respondents made submissions that the present was a case of clear misrepresentation and suppression of facts, inasmuch as the petitioner had merged the provision for doubtful GST input tax credit in expense account, whereas the same was part of income and it is only during the scrutiny proceedings that the said income was offered for taxation, the plea raised that the petitioner has suo moto offered the income, is not borne out from the record and, therefore, the plea raised in this regard cannot be accepted. It was submitted th....
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....en filed. (2) An application referred to in sub-section (1) shall be made within one month from the end of the month in which the order referred to in clause (a) of sub-section (1) has been received and shall be made in such form and verified in such manner as may be prescribed. (3) The Assessing Officer shall, subject to fulfilment of the conditions specified in sub-section (1) and after the expiry of the period of filing the appeal as specified in clause (b) of sub-section (2) of section 249, grant immunity from imposition of penalty under section 270A and initiation of proceedings under section 276C or section 286CC, where the proceedings for penalty under section 270A has not been initiated under the circumstances referred to in sub-section (9) of the said section 270A. (4) The Assessing Officer shall, within a period of one month from the end of the month in which the application under sub-section (1) is received, pass an order accepting or rejecting such application: Provided that no order rejecting the application shall be passed unless the assessee has been given an opportunity of being heard. (5) The order made under sub-section....
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....g the appeal as specified in clause (b) of sub-section (2) of section 249, grant immunity from imposition of penalty under section 270A and initiation of proceedings under section 276C or section 286CC, where the proceedings for penalty under section 270A has not been initiated under the circumstances referred to in sub-section (9) of the said section 270A. 8. In view of above facts and circumstances of the case, application of the assessee company in respect of immunity from imposition of penalty under Section 270AA of the Act is perused but not found tenable as the penalty u/s 270A of the Act for the AY 2018-19 has been initiated under the circumstances referred to in sub-section (9) of the said Section 270A of the Act and is hereby rejected." 18. A perusal of above order would reveal that the authority had passed a wholly non-speaking order by only reiterating the provisions of sub-Section (3) of Section 270AA and indicated that the application was not found tenable, as penalty under Section 270AA of the Act has been initiated under the circumstances, referred to in sub-Section (9) of Section 270A of the Act. 19. Neither in the order dated 19.04.2021 (Annex. 6) no....
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.... and accepted in the assessment order as well and consequently, there is no question of any misreporting 9. This Court is further of the view that the impugned action of Respondent No. 1 is contrary to the avowed Legislative intent of Section 270AA of the Act to encourage/incentivize a taxpayer to (i) fast-track settlement of issue, (ii) recover tax demand; and (iii) reduce protracted litigation. 10. Consequently, the impugned order dated 09^th March, 2022 passed by Respondent No. 1 under Section 270AA (4) of the Act is set aside and Respondent No. 1 is directed to grant immunity under Section 270AA of the Act to the Petitioner. 11. With the aforesaid directions, the present writ petition along with pending applications stand disposed of." 22. The finding recorded by the revisional authority is apparently contrary to the facts and essentially based on assumptions only on account of the fact that the petitioner on its own disclosed the income in question. As noticed hereinbefore, though several notices were issued under Section 142 of the Act, during the course of scrutiny proceedings and as many as ten issues were raised, on which the authority could n....