2024 (3) TMI 1560

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....84,785/- on the ground that Assessing Officer ["AO"] has rejected valuation report of expert on flimsy grounds is perverse, when in fact the AO has given logical reasons and detailed basis for rejecting the same in the assessment order? 2. This appeal is directed against the order of the ITAT dated 24 March 2023. The dispute appears to have arisen in the context of a valuation report which was submitted before the AO by the assessee. The AO for reasons recorded chose to debunk that report and made an ad hoc addition. It is this, which led to the ITAT to come to conclude that the assessment would not sustain. 3. We find from a perusal of the impugned order that the ITAT had also taken note of the rebuttal remarks and submissions as ....

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....g Officer eventually has proceeded to value the royalty, on purely estimate basis without bringing on record any cogent material to support such estimate. There is no valid reason, why he estimated the reproduction cost to twice the amount determined by the expert valuer. Further, the data relied upon by the Assessing Officer to estimate the value of royalty at 8% per annum on the reproduction cost is not based on any authentically sourced information. These facts are well brought out in assessee's rebuttal to Assessing Officer's observations. 10. As regards the submissions of learned Departmental Representative that in the original return the assessee has attributed 25% of the compensation towards royalty, we must observe,....

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....has thereafter gone on to analyze the errors in the orders of the aforementioned authorities without the benefit of an expert. 4. Prima Facie, according to us, every adjudicating authority is entitled to reach its own conclusion after perusing the report of an expert. It is not mandatory, always, to deal with a valuer's report by having another valuer place his opinion on record. 4.1 These are, ultimately, opinions, and not binding on an adjudicating authority." 6. Although Mr. Jain, learned counsel appearing for the assessee submitted that we should independently examine the report of the expert, we find ourselves unable to sustain that submission for the following reasons. 7. While it is true that the report of an expert va....