Reopening of assessment cannot rest solely on an audit party's opinion; reassessment under Section 147/148 is impermissible and power of revision should be considered.

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

Full Text of the Document

X X   X X   Extracts   X X   X X

....Reopening of assessment based solely on an audit party's objection does not satisfy the statutory 'reason to believe' required for reassessment; the audit objection is characterised as an expert opinion and its reliance amounts to a mere change of opinion. The assessing officer's prior detailed scrutiny and disallowance of exemption under Section 80-IA after threadbare inquiry precluded invoking reassessment provisions where the same issue had been considered from all conceivable angles. Where omission arose from the AO's inability to envisage a point, that does not confer power to reopen under reassessment provisions; the departmental remedy available was power of revision rather than reassessment.....