AI Drafter 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (4) TMI 932
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....me of hearing of Appeal." 3. Succinctly, the fact as culled out from the records is that in this case, return of income was e- filed u/s 139(1) of the Income-tax Act 1961 on 01.06.2017, declaring total income of Rs 4,13,210/- During the year under consideration the assessee is running an E-Mitra Kiosk and providing service of deposit utility bill of various consumers to the Government Department like water bill and electricity bills. As per computation of income filed the assessee has declared income from business and profession of Rs. 4,35,256/- u/s. 44AD on total turnover of Rs. 9,96,782/-. The case of the assessee was selected for the examination of the issue of cash deposits during the demonetization period. The case was selected for manual scrutiny after obtaining the prior approval of Pr. CIT-3, Jaipur. Accordingly, notice u/s 143(2) of the income-tax Act, 1961 was on-line issued on 29.09.2018 on ITBA Portal which was served upon the assessee through E-Mail or Regd. Post. Notice u/s 142(1) was on-line issued on 05.06.2019 fixing the case for hearing on 12.06.2019 but compliance of the same was not made. 3.1 As regards the issue of cash deposited in the bank account duri....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....assessment, assessee preferred an appeal before the ld. CIT(A). Apropos to the grounds so raised the relevant finding of the ld. CIT(A) is reiterated here in below: "4.2 I have gone through carefully the assessment order and the submission of the appellant on this issue of cash deposit during the demonetization period. The appellant is a service provider for facilitating the general public to make payment of various government dues. The appellant is an E-Mitra operator appointed by the Rajasthan State Government to provide facility to the citizen to deposit various government taxes, telephone, electricity, water bills and other services authorized by the government. He collects the money from public on account of different bills and deposits it in his bank account thereafter transfers it to the government account through Aksh Optifibre (Nodal Agency). During the period of demonetization, the appellant has deposited Rs. 33,64,279/- being the money collected from public. The appellant has maintained complete details of the depositors such as their name purpose of collection of money alongwith the amount of collection. The Id. AO has accepted the amount of Rs. 33,64,279/- cas....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
....ns who are interested in paying their utility bills such as electricity bills, water bills, fees payments and interested in buying train tickets, hotel booking and transferring money from one location to other (which is prevalent particularly in people of Bihar who are employed in various houses and industries in Jaipur and who have to transfer money to their family persons at Bihar and the position of money transfer was very different from situation persisting at present) etc. which is deposited by him in his bank account and is transferred to various portals for above said purpose and in return the assessee earns commission from respective portal and from the person also. For the year under consideration the appellant had filed his ITR on 01.06.2017 vide e filing acknowledgement no. 788438330010617 declaring a taxable income of Rs. 4,13,210/-. The case was selected for scrutiny on the basis of information about cash deposit of Rs. 56,01,800/- in his bank account during the demonetization period. Accordingly notice u/s 143(2) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 was issued on 29.09.2018 and further notices u/s 142(1) were issued which were complied with. Order of the ld. ....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
.... an Agreement with Novapay on 28.12.2016 which is a portal for money transfer mainly. The assessee was working for this portal earlier also but the quantum of commission was very low as is evident from the entries appearing in form 26AS. It is apparent from TDS made by above named Novapay that during the months of December 2016 to March 2017 the quantum of commission has recorded growth as compared to commissions in the months of April, 16 to November, 2016. The bank statements of the assessee evidences that the amount deposited by the assessee in the bank accounts during these two months of demonetization was transferred to other accounts as is apparent from the transactions appearing therein. An overall glance on enclosed documents evidences following facts :- 1. The assessee was engaged into the business of working as agent for depositing utility bills and other services such as Hotel Booking, Ticket Booking, Money transfer, mobile recharge etc. 2. It can not be presumed that the money transferred on various portals for above said purpose were incurred for personal use as in such situation TDS deductions would not have been there. 3. ....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
..... 6,56,929 had also been utilized for the purposes of the customers only. In view of above clinching evidences it can safely be presumed that the cash so deposited by the assessee was from genuine sources and did not pertain to the assessee and same had been received from his customers for utilization for above stated purposes. You are kindly requested to allow the appeal and oblige." 6. In this appeal the ld. AR of the assessee submitted a detailed paper book containing the records against the contention so raised in the written submission and the index of the documents submitted reads as under : Paper Book Index SN DESCRIPTION PAGE NO. 1. ITR V and Computation of Income of the appellant 1-5 2. Form 26AS 6-9 3. Summary of Form 26AS 10 4. Bank Statement with Bank of Baroda 11-13 5. Bank Statement with SBI - 11798 (for two months) 14-24 6. Bank Statement with SBI - 34093 (for two months) 25-92 7. Cash deposit in Bank Accounts summary 93 8. Agreement with Nova Pay 94-95 9. Transaction statement of Novapay for 16.12.16 to 31.12.16 96-99 10. Summary of transactions with Novapa....
X X X X Extracts X X X X
X X X X Extracts X X X X
..../- during the demonetization period. The amount deposited consists of deposit of money received for paying the Electricity, Water bills etc. through E Mitra (Rs. 33,64,289/-) and payment for money transfer, hotel, ticket booking, mobile recharge etc. for Rs. 22,37,511/-. The ld. AO opined that deposit of Rs. 33,64,289/- stood verified whereas regarding balance sum of Rs. 22,37,511/- the assessee failed to provide details about the persons whose money was deposited and for what purpose it was deposited and hence he taxed this sum of Rs. 22,37,511/- as unexplained credit of the assessee u/s 69A. The ld. CIT(A) has confirmed the view of the ld. AO and stated that the ledger account submitted by the assessee consist of debit and credit entries but the purpose of money so received and the details thereof were not submitted therefore, he confirmed the order of the ld. AO. The assessee in the present appeal submitted that in support of the receipt of the cash he has placed on record the Form 26AS, (APB 6-9), Summary of form 26AS (APB 10), Transaction statement with Novapay Solutions (APB 96-99), Agreement with Novapay Solutions (APB 94-95) and Bank account statements of the assessee (APB ....