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2025 (10) TMI 1008

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....32(1) of the Act and a survey under Section 133A of the Act as well were conducted on the Goel Group of Cases on 15-03-2022 during which certain incriminating documents were seized of various persons relating to the group including the assessee. The assessee company is engaging in the business of trading in raw materials of electric goods such as steel and copper terms etc. The case of the assessee was selected for scrutiny and statutory notices were duly issued and served upon the assessee. During the course of search operation, it was observed in the search by the search team that the group was engaged in routing its own unaccounted fund through shell companies in the guise of unsecured loans. The loans raised during the year by the assessee from eight parties were Rs.9.85 crore. The details thereto is extracted in Paragraph 4.1 of the assessment order. Thereafter, the learned AO discussed the incriminating material and came to the conclusion that assessee has taken accommodation entries. The ld. AO also extracted the statement of Shri Arun Nangalia and Shri Jivendra Mishra Kothari. The ld AO came to the conclusion that the assessee could not prove the creditworthiness and genuin....

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....pellate folder. We note that the assessee has filed all the evidences from all the lenders before the learned CIT (A) comprising copies of ITRs audited accounts, bank statements, confirmations, sources of funds, MCQ data etc.and the ld. AO has not pointed out any single defects and had not done any further verification but relied on the statement recorded of certain individuals during the course of search. In our opinion, the assessee has discharged its burden by filing all the evidences before the learned AO as well as the learned CIT (A). We even note that the notices were issued under section 133(6) of the Act to the loan lenders which were also duly complied with by the said lenders by furnishing the required details as called for by the learned AO. The learned CIT (A) has recorded a clear-cut finding to this effect in the appellate order. On page number 23, the learned CIT (A) has rightly held that once the repayment of loan has been established based on the documents/ evidences, the credit entries cannot be looked in isolation after ignoring the debit entries despite the fact that the debit entries were carried out in the later year which is the ratio laid down by the Hon&#39....

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..... The assessee also paid interested on loan during the year to the extent of Rs.1,10,18,307/-. The assessee has also opening balance of unsecured loan outstanding as on the beginning of the year. The complete statement of the total loans outstanding on the year end is given by the ld. AO in Para no.5.1 of the assessment order. Thereafter, the ld. AO noted that during the course of search at the residence premises of Shri Navin Kumar Saffar, the laptop, pen drive were seized, wherein the details of unsecured loans from these entities were found. The ld. AO also found that the details of interest paid and commission paid to the brokers were also found therein. The statements u/s 132(4) of the Act of the Accounts Head of Goel Group was recorded, who confirmed that these loans were taken. Besides, the statements of Shri Deepak Goel, one of the Director of Goel Group, who also confirmed the loans was taken by the group company from Shell companies. Finally, the ld. AO noted that Shri Deepak Goel, could not prove the identity and genuineness of the transactions, despite being provided sufficient opportunities and time by the Investigation Wing. Now, the ld. AO relying on the report of th....

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....her places as well as at the residential premises of its Directors namely, Devendra Goel, Devash Goel, Purushottam Dass Goel and Key Persons connected with this group. Vide notice dated 20.12.2022 and 21.12.2022, the Assessing Officer had provided copy of some documents allegedly belonging to the appellant company, which in his opinion was incriminating. However, I have gone through the said documents and the reply filed by the appellant during the assessment hearing stage and I come to conclusion none of the details /documents mentioned in the aforesaid notice represent any escapement of income. 5.3 Reference has been made in page 3 to 7 of the assessment order with respect to one excel file found from the laptop of Navin Kumar Saffar, the Chief Accounts Head of Laser Group. Reference has also been made to the statement recorded under section 131 of the Act on 02.03.2023from Navin Kumar Saffar. At the assessment hearing stage, Show Cause notice was issued to the appellant company with respect to the aforesaid statement of Navin Kumar Saffar. There is allegation that the said loan represent accommodation entry transaction. It was submitted by the appellant company that the....

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....rded of Anuj Bukrediwala dated 16.05.2016, wherein it was mentioned that, Rareview Commercial Pvt Ltd ('RCPL') and RudramalaVyapaar Pvt Ltd. ('RVPL') were alleged shell entities. In this connection, it is submitted that it is relevant to mention here that the statement referred above was recorded about 6 years before the date of search on Goel group. Further, the said RCPL and RVPL are not the loan parties of the appellant in the instant case. 5.6 Again, in page 15 of assessment order, the Assessing Officer has relied on statement recorded of Jivendra Mishra dated 28.09.2014, wherein it was mentioned that, Badal Commotrade Pvt. Ltd. ('BCPL') and Contship Commodities Pvt Ltd. ('CCPL') were alleged shell entities. In this connection, it is submitted that it is relevant to mention here that the statement referred above was recorded about 8 years before the date of search on Goel group. Further, the said BCPL and CCPL are not the loan parties of the appellant in the instant case. As such, it is irrelevant to rely on the statement of Jivendra Mishra. 5.7 In page 18 of assessment order, the LARTA Officer has relied on statement recorded o....

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....red loan of Rs. 186.28 crores to various parties out of own funds of Rs. 241.60 crores. In the instant year, the appellant had submitted documents like copy of MCA database, copy of ITR Acknowledgment, audited accounts, ledger copies, and copies of extracts bank statements to establish the identity and creditworthiness of the aforesaid loan party and genuineness of the transactions with the loan party during the instant year. I find from the records that the said party was duly served with notice under section 133(6) and the said notice was duly complied. 5.11 Regarding loan taken from Manish Co Private Ltd ('MCPL'), I find from the records that during the instant year, the assessee company has taken unsecured loan of Rs. 5,00,00,000/- from MCPL. Interest on such loan was charged of Rs. 24,42,740/- (subject to TDS of Rs. 1,83,207/-). The said loan was outstanding as at 31.03.2021 is Rs. 5,00,00,000/-. The said loan was repaid in FY 2022-23. As evident from the audited accounts of MCPL for FY 2020-21, that the said company had net worth of Rs. 33 Crores as at 31.03.2020 and PBT of Rs. 58.89 lakhs. The appellant had submitted documents like copy of MCA database, copy....

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.... assumption of facts and thus ex-facie was was untenable. We further find, that the lender had sufficient own funds to advance the loan to the assessee. The loan is noted to carry interest at the rate of 9%. The assessee has provided the said interest in its books and deducted TDS thereon as well. The interest income has been accounted for by the lender and the same form parts of the retum of income filed by M/s Evermore Sales Pvt Ltd for the relevant AY 2013-14 dated 23.12.2013. The bank statement of M/s Evermore Sales Pvt Ltd evidences that there was no prior deposit of cash before advancement of loan. The loan has been confirmed by the lender and the same was also subsequently repaid along with full interest by the assessee in the year 2014-15. We note that all these documents which were filed by the assessee before the lower authorities have not been found to be incorrect or faulty at any stage. Moreover, the main premise on which the AO made the impugned addition viz., there was a prior cash deposit in the bank account of M/s Evermore Sales Pvt Ltd before advancement of loan has been noted to be factually wrong as there is no cash deposit in account of M/s Evermore Sa....

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....e have heard the rival submissions and perused the materials available on record, we note that the search u/s 132(1) as well as survey u/s 133A of the Act were conducted on Goel Group of cases on 15.03.2022. The assessee was also part of the said group. During the search, according to the ld. AO various incriminating documents were discovered and seized which revealed that assessee had borrowed two money by way of loans, aggregating to Rs.11,50,00,000/- from two parties namely; i) Rs.6,50,00,000 from Indian Infotech & software Ltd. and ii) Rs.5,00,00,000/- from Manish Co. Pvt. Ltd. The assessee filed complete evidences qua the lender companies before the ld. AO, however, the ld. AO by relying on the statement of Shri Jivendra Mishra, dated 28.09.2014, added these loans as unexplained cash credit to the income of the assessee in the assessment farmed u/s 143(3) dated 08.03.2023. Besides the ld. AO also disallowed the interest paid on these loans of Rs.1,10,18,307/- and commission paid for arranging such bogus loans amounting to Rs.5,75,000/-. The ld. AO noted that in case of Indian Infotech and Software Ltd. notice u/s 133(6) of the Act was served through speed post however, no resp....

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....ant so far as the assessee is concerned. Therefore, we so far as these observations of the ld. CIT (A) are concerned, we are in full agreement that all the statements are not relevant at all to the assessee's case. 09. We also note that that the assessee has provided interest on loan of Rs.15,55,892/- taken from Indian Infotech and software Ltd. and TDS of Rs.1,16,694/- was deducted. We also note that the loan was repaid during the F.Y. 2022-23. The said lender was non-banking finance company registered with RBI and is engaged in the business of financing, investment and training on computer technology and its related activities. We note that the said company has aggregate unsecured loans of Rs.186.28 crores given to various parties out of its own funds of Rs.241.60 crores. The assessee has filed all the documents like MCA database, copy of ITR Acknowledgment, audited accounts, ledger copies, and copies of extracts bank statements to establish the identity and creditworthiness of the aforesaid loan party and genuineness of the transactions. The ld. CIT (A) even noted that the party has replied to the notice u/s 13(6) of the Act whereas the ld. AO in the assessment order ha....