INTERNATIONAL SEAPORT (HALDIA) PRIVATE LIMITED ,KOLKATA vs. DCIT, CIRCLE - 12(1), KOLKATA

The only issue raised by the assessee in the various grounds of appeal is confirmation of addition of Rs. 20,000/- by ld. CIT(A) as levied by ld. AO u/s 274 r.w.s. 272A(1)(d) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (in short the 'Act').

The facts in brief are that the Assessing Officer (in short ld. 'AO') upon finding that the assessee has not complied with and attended the dates fixed for hearings and therefore, initiated the penalty proceedings by issuing notice u/s 272A sub-Section 1 Clause ‘d’ of the Act as to why the penalty should not be levied for non-compliance. The AO finally observed that the assessee has failed without reasonable cause to comply with the notice u/s 142(1) of the Act dated 04.12.2019 as well as dated 17.10.2019 and thereby failing to comply with the notices within the meaning of Section 272A(1)(d) of the Act on two occasions and accordingly levied penalty of Rs. 10,000/- for each default thereby imposing penalty of Rs. 20,000/- in the order passed u/s 272A(1)(d) of the Act dated 08.02.2022.

The assessee assailed the said order before ld. CIT(A), however, ld. CIT(A) dismissed the appeal of the assessee by observing that assessee has failed to respond to the show cause notices issued by ld. AO.

After hearing rival contentions and perusing the impugned order, the undisputed facts as culling out of the records are that assessee could not comply with the notice issued u/s 142(1) of the Act dated 04.12.2019 as link to respond to notice was not available due to technical snag and glitch in the IT portal and the same has been complied with on 18.12.2019 against the notice dated 15.12.2019 (Sunday, when the link was made available). We, further observe that the compliance to notice u/s 142(1) of the Act dated 17.10.2019 was made by the appellant on 24.10.2019 and thus, there was no issue of non-compliance as observed by the